WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) on Sunday night showed the video that shows a pair of officers working to capture the dog, which had been on the loose in a local neighborhood.
An unnamed woman who shot the video told WXYZ she was upset because the officers used a taser on the animal several times during the process and until it was placed in a police car.
The woman, who the station said doesn’t own the dog, was not objecting to an initial use of force to get the dog under control. But she said after the dog was captured using a stick, police continued to use the electronic device on the dog.
“They had to stop the dog somehow,” the woman told the station. “I understand that, but to continue to taser him after hew as on the catch pole was just unnecessary.”
She said she hopes police will receive more training with equipment used in animal captures.
Lauren Melcher Davis posted on Facebook March 12, 2017
Roseville police tasering a non aggressive loose dog directly in front of me and the owner's friend and continued to shock him even after the dog was on a control stick! SICK AND UNACCEPTABLE!! I understand tasering the dog initially to stop it from either getting into it with my dog or running onto Gratiot, but to shock the dog multiple times AFTER getting it on the stick is NOT OKAY!
I FULLY SUPPORT LAW ENFORCEMENT AND AM NOT OUT FOR THE OFFICERS INVOLVED TO BE FIRED. I want TRAINING. That's all. Proper training on the tools they're given to use. PLEASE stop twisting this as me being anti police because I am NOT.
Here's the bottom line- Joel and I walk our dogs separately because Snowy is dog reactive and can't be walked through the neighborhood for exactly this reason- loose dogs that if they run up to her, she will fight them. Snowy is 100% safe and controlled on leash but if a strange dog gets in her face, she will react defensively, hence why she's walked in the business area rather than the neighborhood. She's always controlled, it is loose uncontrolled dogs I am concerned about.
Siouxsie and I walked down the street into the neighborhood while Joel went towards Gratiot. The dog, followed by multiple cops and the lady in the car, ran up to Sioux. I tried numerous times to grab the dog's collar and it dodged me and bolted each time. The dog then ran toward where Joel and Snowy were just rounding the corner onto Gratiot.
I told the cops my white dog with my husband will fight if the dog runs up to her, thinking they'd turn the dog back into the neighborhood with their cars. The dog dodged their cars and kept toward Joel and Snowy. They then tasered the dog to stop it. They got the control stick on the dog- and then KEPT TAZING.
My issue is not the initial use of the taser, that was a good nonlethal call that protected my dog and protected motorists in six lanes of traffic and also the loose dog.
My issue is they kept shocking the dog after it was on the stick and they didn't even know how to properly use a stick. If you notice, the one cop walks directly into the swing path of the stick and then shocks the dog again, then when the officer with control of the stick swings the dog toward him to load it into the vehicle, the cop shocks the dog yet again. Both those times were when the dog was firmly controlled by the officer holding the stick. The officer with the stick also said "I don't know how to lock this." Control sticks lock automatically. I own one from my past working in dog rescue, they came in handy to pull dogs out of crawlspaces where I couldn't reach them. They only tighten unless intentionally released- the release is done in a way that's not possible to do accidentally.
I have major concerns with the training these cops have received now that Roseville basically doesn't have animal control anymore. If we aren't going to have a local ACO, we need to train the officers how to properly handle this.
The screenshots shown above were taken from her video. Click the link here to watch the entire video.
(Oakland Press News - March 14, 2017)
