Police Commission Rejects Activists’ Call for Police Dog Ban : Law enforcement: Panel says it will pursue an inquiry into LAPD’s K-9 unit, but dismissed bid for an independent investigation.

A coalition of civil rights groups, charging that Los Angeles police dogs have for years been responsible for widespread and often savage attacks, failed Tuesday to persuade the Police Commission to immediately halt use of the animals.

The groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, also were unsuccessful in urging the commission to launch an independent probe of the LAPD’s K-9 unit. The commission, however, did pledge to push forward with its own inquiry of the K-9 unit and an alleged “find and bite” training policy for police dogs.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and others in the department have steadfastly defended the training and use of the dogs. Before the commission meeting, Gates insisted that the police dogs do a “marvelous job for the people of this city.”

But Tuesday’s two-hour discussion of police dogs was dominated by longtime critics of the K-9 unit who contend that it should be suspended pending an investigation into the cases of 900 people bitten by LAPD dogs in the last three years.

“None of us opposes safe and effective canine training that enhances the safety of officers, the dogs and the public. And none of these groups oppose the dogs biting suspects who imminently threaten the officers, the dogs or the public with serious bodily harm or death,” said Constance Rice, attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“We do, however, oppose a ‘bite first and ask questions later’ policy that results in unleashing the dog to search and automatically bite whomever it tracks: Suspects. Non-suspects. Suspects who are non-threatening. Children. Bystanders. Whomever the dog finds,” Rice said.

Joining in the criticism of the LAPD’s K-9 unit were Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, Hawthorne Police Officer Charles Brugnola, and three people who told the commission that they had been attacked by police dogs without provocation.

One of them, Jose Ricardo Rivera, 20, said he was hospitalized for two weeks after a police dog bit him repeatedly on the arms, legs and in the groin in June, 1989. “I was sitting in the park and all of a sudden a dog was on top of me,” said Rivera, one of several dozen plaintiffs suing the city over K-9 attacks.

Another plaintiff, Michelle Nunley, 31, of Los Angeles also told commissioners that she was attacked by a police dog Dec. 18, 1988, while she was homeless and sleeping near railroad tracks in South-Central Los Angeles. “The dog attacked me while I was asleep,” she said. “I still have the scars and the scars of my memory of what happened.”

Throughout the hearing, commissioners and Gates declined to publicly debate the allegations, noting that the department was sued in June by the ACLU and other organizations over the training and use of police dogs.

But before the hearing began, Gates fiercely defended the K-9 unit and rejected charges that its dogs are allowed to bite suspects as reward for their work.

“We do not teach our dogs to bite as reward. Absolutely not,” Gates told reporters. “These are good dogs . . . (and) if they are attacked themselves, they react to that. . . . You would too,” he said.

Gates also insisted that statistics on people injured by police dogs were grossly exaggerated. “We keep very careful records . . . and, I think, 70% to 75% are nothing more than Band-Aid” injuries, Gates said.

Deputy Chief Ronald Frankle, whose responsibilities include the K-9 unit, also defended the use of police dogs and told commissioners that the department has never allowed the animals to attack except when provoked.

“I find the thought of allowing a dog to bite as a reward reprehensible,” Frankle said. “And the thought and suggestion we might allow it is ludicrous.”

The class action suit, filed by half a dozen civil rights groups and public interest attorneys, seeks sweeping changes in LAPD policies on the use of police dogs. The suit charges that the K-9 unit’s policies endanger the public and are particularly egregious in minority communities.

Attorney Don Cook, who specializes in police dog-bite cases, has said his research into the LAPD’s K-9 unit found that three divisions in predominantly minority areas--77th, Newton and Southeast--had more dog bite incidents than other parts of the city.

The Los Angeles City Council is also slated to consider a call for a temporary halt to the use of police dogs.