Louisiana Voice

Much has been said and written – and it should have been – about the beating death of RONALD GREENE and the beating of LARRY BOWMAN, both at the hands of Louisiana State Police in Troop F in northeast Louisiana.

But for whatever reason, not a word has been uttered by Louisiana media – until now – about the two-minute video of a BRUTAL ATTACK of a vicious Lake Charles Police Department K-9 on a helpless woman named Nicole Edwards and the image of officers trying to handcuff the prone woman even as the dog continues biting her.

Edwards never resisted and the animal ignored repeated shouts by officers to cease its attack. An unidentified officer can even be heard demanding that Edwards put her hands down and stop fighting the dog who is obviously out of control.

The attack occurred on May 3, 2019, but somehow local media never heard about it. Neither, apparently, did the media learn of Edwards’ lawsuit which resulted in a huge but otherwise undisclosed settlement – but not before the department attempted to hide behind the qualified immunity protection given law enforcement officers in many such cases.

New Orleans attorney Glenn McGovern, who represented Edwards, said attacks by law enforcement canines has become a growing problem since 9-11. “That’s when departments really started beefing up their K-9 forces for protection,” McGovern said.

“You have to follow the money. As the demand grew, the ability to properly train enough animals diminished and what happened was the flooding of departments with improperly and inadequately trained dogs. But the demand was there,” he said.

“My wife’s hairdresser and our interior decorator spent thousands upon thousands of dollars to train for their occupations. Police departments spend $370 – the fee to become certified and the certification of both the handlers and the dogs is sadly insufficient,” he said.

McGovern said the emphasis in recent years is to import the Belgian Malinois breed, a dog that closely resembles the German Shepherd breed, and which is generally preferred for use by the military.

But the increase in the use of K-9s has brought a dramatic increase in PROBLEMS , not just in Louisiana, but elsewhere as well.

“Dogs must be trained to bite. Some don’t want to and those are forced in more training to get into the bite mode. As a result, the dog becomes neurotic, unpredictable. The average department has a bite rate of about 20-30 percent. If you have a gun that goes off 30 percent of the time, you’d say that was ridiculous. Baton Rouge had a 90 percent bite rate.”

Police department dogs require “maintenance” each month in order to remain certified, McGovern said. “But the handlers are generally someone who has been stuck in there who is burned out. They don’t even get overtime pay for working with the dogs,” he said.

There are no national standards, he said, adding that 30 percent or more of the time, a dog will not release from an attack and sometimes they even attack the handler/officer.

“Smaller departments have to have dual-purpose dogs that are used for drugs, for tracking, for S.W.A.T. and for apprehension,” McGovern said. “There’s just no way they can adequately train these dogs for all those functions.”

Because of the demand for dogs, breeders flooded the market, selling up to 20 dogs at a time to a trainer – and none were rejected and the departments end up with these animals. “You can’t possible sell 20 dogs at a time and get no rejects,” McGovern said. “The problem is, and what’s really scary, is there are no records of certification of training. When the dogs are green and the officers are green, they can’t handle the animals.

“The mindset is the dog is a wuss if he doesn’t take someone down. Sometimes they take down the wrong person, though. We have a case in Caddo or Bossier where the dog attacked a little girl who just happened to be nearby.”

The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Department likes to brag about a dog it has that has steel teeth, McGovern said. “They call him Robo-Cop.”

“If you examine the results, you’ll see that the victims are primarily young blacks.

“In another Lake Charles case,” he said, “there were conflicting orders given a motorist. One cop was yelling at him to get out of the car while another was telling him to keep his hands up. Well, you can’t reach for the door handle and keep your hands up at the same time, so you have a choice of getting shot if you reach for the door handle or having the dog set upon you if you remain in the car.”