Trauma from dog bites puts spotlight on Saskatoon police's policy on using dogs in arrests
CBC
Warning: This story contains a photo of serious injuries from a dog bite.
Colleen Dell has seen the scars police dogs can leave, even long after any physical wounds have healed.
Dell is a tenured sociology professor at the University of Saskatchewan who uses dogs as therapy animals for people struggling with mental health, addictions and well-being.
She remembers being surprised when one patient, who had previously been injured by a police dog, recoiled from the therapy dog she had brought in.
"I was like, 'oh, I never thought that.' It's just not something that was kind of in my purview," Dell said.
The Saskatoon Police Service's (SPS's) 2023 annual report on use of force said officers used police dogs 30 times in 2022. It did not have details of injuries the dogs caused.
The Regina Police Service does track how often its dogs injure people. Regina police reported 162 uses of dogs from 2018 to 2022, an average of 32.4 per year. Of those 162 incidents, 157 ended with injuries to suspects.
SPS is currently under investigation by the province's police oversight agency after a suspect was seriously injured by a police dog in September. In the wake of that incident, CBC requested a copy of SPS's police dog policy.
CBC has now received that document via a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPP) request. It's about eight and a half pages long, with one and a half of them being redacted. SPS says the policy is updated yearly and that police dogs are an important part of the work they do.
Dell agrees that canines "have a really important working role at the police." But she has also had to work with some people to push through the trauma inflicted on them by the dogs. Watching people connect with animals that had once been a source of terror for them is a rewarding experience for her.
"I was just like, 'oh my gosh,' to be so afraid in the beginning because of that experience that you've had and now to be able to turn that around," said Dell.
A lawyer says Saskatoon's policy gives police too much leeway on how they use dogs.
"I think [police] have to take a good hard look at how [dogs] are being used in apprehending suspects, and if it's causing more harm than good to the person who's being attacked," said Eleanore Sunchild, a lawyer who has given some unofficial counsel to the person injured in the September incident that's under investigation.
That incident began when officers saw a car driving erratically, according to a police news release. When they tried to pull the car over, the driver sped away and eventually crashed into a ball diamond bench, police say.