Not colorblind: New report shows 'racist' LA police dogs only bite blacks and Latinos

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  Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has come under fire due to police dogs biting large numbers of minorities
• In the first half of 2013, 100 per cent of dog bites were to African Americans and Latinos

A new report on the Canine Special Detail of the LA Sheriff’s Department (LASD) shows that police dogs bite a disproportionately large number of minority suspects.
According to the Police Assessment Resource Centre (PARC) report, the number of Latino people bitten by LASD dogs went up 30 per cent between 2004 and 2012 and the number of African Americans bitten rose 33 per cent.

Most disturbingly, for the first half of 2013 100 per cent of individuals bitten by LASD dogs have been black or Latino.

Targets: A new report shows that LASD police dogs bite disproportionately high numbers black and Latino people

PARC is a non-profit devoted to 'advancing effective, respectful and publicly accountable policing.'

The report's writers say the 2013 statistics for police dog bites to minorities is 'a troubling and unacceptable figure.'

Also noted by the report is the low or non-existent incidence of dog bites in affluent areas with smaller minority populations.

'Crime rates are lower in these areas, but the stark disparity leads us to wonder why canine deployments seem to occur disproportionately in less affluent areas with larger minority populations,' stated the report.

Closely monitored: The report recommended that the department tracks the incidence of bites from individual dogs and their trainers

Between 2004 and 2012, the largely black or Latino areas of Century, City of Industry, Compton, Lakewood and South LA/Lennox had more dog bites than all of LASD’s 21 other areas combined.

It's not the first time the LASD has received criticism for racial profiling.

According to The Independent, in the 1980s some Los Angeles police officers would refer to black youths as 'dog biscuits'.
A recent Department of Justice report found that the LASD singles out black and Latino people for stops, seizures and excessive for a higher rates than other races 'in violation of the Constitution and federal law'.

Race row: The LASD's police dogs appear to be racially discriminatory

The report found that 'African Americans, and to a lesser extent Latinos, are more likely to be stopped and/or searched than whites, even when controlling for factors other than race, such as crime rates.'

The authors of the Parc report recommended that the LASD collect data going forward on the factors that drive canine call-outs to understand the disproportionate numbers of bites to racial minorities - or impose a moratorium on the use of dogs.

They also suggest that the department employ alternative uses of force and that it tracks the incidence of bites for individual dogs and trainers.

Micah 5:8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.




Hosea 13:8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.