Police dogs: Protecting them as they protect us
By Gina Spadafori
January 28, 2008
It seems to happen a couple times a year every summer: A police dog is left in the patrol car, the air conditioning either wasn’t turned on or stops working. The dog dies.
Aside from such a death being a brutal way for anyone to die, the accidential death of a police dog represents the loss of thousands of dollars in the training and procurement of such a highly-trained animal.
Is there an answer? Over on our DogCars.com Web site, Keith Turner writes about a product that might help police dogs – and pet dogs as well.
this sounds like a great system. We have a Temp-Alert in our van that will page us if it gets too hot but it has broken down. This is a good reminder to get it fixed prior to the summer months.
I hope that all law enforcement agencies employing dogs will seek these out and approve funding to put these in their K-9 officers vehicles.
Comment by JenniferJ — January 28, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
Most of the roasted police dogs that I hear about were in cars that have this system or one of its competitors installed — it’s when there’s a technical failure that tragedy strikes. Same thing with a few cases of RV-loads of show dogs — the electronic safety devices failed at some point.
I’m all for technological “insurance” — but it’s dangerous to depend on gadgets and trust that they are working in one’s absence.
The greatest car safety device ever is a wide-open sunroof.
Comment by H. Houlahan — January 28, 2008 @ 2:43 pm
I seriously haven’t scoured the internet for Quality Assurance reports and safety reports for this or like systems. What’s the failure rate, I wonder?
While I am all for these kinds of systems, I really feel that they should be put through extensive testing with many variable conditions to see how it measures up. I would seriously hate to see people [police officers or folks like you and me] become reliant on a faulty product. Not to mention leave the animal in the car more often rather than remove him and take him with you.
Comment by Lynn — January 28, 2008 @ 8:50 pm
I didn’t mean to imply that the product was a piece of junk — just that some sort of system failure seemed to be the cause of most of the tragedies I’ve heard of. This could be a bad installation, the car battery going bad, the thermostat malfunctioning, a wire being damaged (ever see the aftermarket wiring jobs on some police cars?) or a zillion other things.
I wish police K9’s (at least based on what I’ve seen where I have lived and worked) were selected and trained and handled and deployed in such a manner that they spent time out “on the beat” more, and less time stuck in the back of a patrol car, ready to spring. The dogs would be healthier and more integrated into their communities — everyone would benefit — handlers, police departments, and the public. And I mean that for general-purpose patrol dogs, as well as specialized detection dogs.
Comment by H. Houlahan — January 29, 2008 @ 7:58 am