CHARLES CITY – A dog was shot and killed on December 16, 2013 in Charles City by a police officer near an elementary school. The incident raised questions by some as to whether the police officer used his best judgement in shooting the animal.
At The time of the incident, the Charles City Police Department offered a brief explanation as to what had occurred. On Monday evening, a newsletter from the Charles City Public Safety Department was released, and gave further detail:
Recently you may have noticed some press coverage of our handling of a dog-at-large call. I would like to address this incident by saying something about law enforcement in general. If after reading this, you think that we could have handled this or any other call better, then we shall agree to agree because I can tell you that every incident of any significance that I have ever handled on this job, I felt I could have handled it better after the fact. That’s what cops do. When there is time to think about it, we can almost always think of ways to improve any given situation.
Law Enforcement and Public Safety is not a perfect science. There is no procedure that can be written to handle every call we take. That is because every call is different and the people involved are different. When an Officer signs on for a job as a Law Enforcement Officer in a community the size of Charles City they are signing on for much more than just enforcing the law. In reality, enforcing the law is only a small part of what they will be doing. If all they did was enforce the law, they would be useless at ¾ of the calls they will be taking. They will be called to try and wake someone in the middle of the night who has laid themselves to rest for the last time. This isn’t enforcing the law, but it is Law Enforcement. They will be the first to arrive at the scene of medical emergencies and start C.P.R. on a heart attack victim or try and stop the bleeding of someone who is injured. This isn’t enforcing law, but it is Law Enforcement. They will respond to traffic accidents and tend to peoples’ broken bodies before doing anything else and when things don’t turn out as we would like, it will be their job to visit the next of kin and deliver the news. This isn’t enforcing the law either, but it is Law Enforcement. These officers will help the elderly to their feet when they have fallen and can’t get up, and they will be called to help get cats out of trees. The list is endless and only a fraction of it will be enforcing the law, but all of it is Law Enforcement. In the case of the dog, dealing with a dog-at-large that belongs to someone else IS about enforcing the law. I have seen officers do some pretty creative things to address it. I do not expect them to be bitten, although sometimes they are. The dog may have had tags, but that doesn’t mean that the dog was willing to let the officer see them. The person most able to determine the seriousness of a potential dog bite is the intended recipient of that bite.
For the record, in 2013 our department handled 514 animal calls, wrote 36 citations for dog-at-large, 8 citations for vicious dog, 9 citations for no rabies vaccinations, and had to put down only 1 dog while on the call. The animal control budget which is part of the Police Department is over $37K this year and includes a $17,400 direct payment in support of Pets Are Worth Saving, (P.A.W.S.). The balance goes toward operation of the shelter itself. The volunteers at P.A.W.S. do a great job, but I question whether they could make it happen if the City didn’t assist. In 2013 P.A.W.S. had 193 animals enter our facility. Of those animals 160 were adopted out and 33 returned to their owners. If you are wondering what can be done to help – Volunteer! Or make a donation to P.A.W.S. The City is compassionate toward animals. That is why they go over our animal control budget every year and continually act in support of what we are doing. At the Police Department we like dogs so much we even hired one in 2009. Officer Midnight works with Officer Eckenrod nearly everyday. You won’t see him doing much foot patrol on his own though. Our leash law sort of gets in the way of that.
