MERIDEN — The city quietly sat down its two remaining police dogs because the canine cops were taking bites out of more than crime.
The City Council is reviewing a proposed agreement between the city and the police union that would permanently retire the department's canines.
City Manager Roger L. Kemp said the police dogs are too much of a liability for the city now.
According to city officials, one of the dogs bit a criminal suspect who had been subdued and was lying prone, and it cost $250,000 to settle a claim brought against the city.
The contract between the city and the police union requires the department to maintain a minimum of three police dogs. The provision was added in 1996.
A tentative agreement with the union would officially eliminate the canine patrols and substitute a traffic unit in its place. The matter is now before the council's Labor Committee for review.
The proposed agreement stipulates that the city will give the two remaining police dogs to their handlers. It also commits the city to paying for veterinarian care for the two canines for five years. Additionally, the city will give each handler $1,000 a year for dog food for the next two years.
Kemp said there have been other incidents and claims involving attacks by the city's police dogs.
The Police Department retired a 4-year-old German shepherd last December after the dog had bitten a police officer on the left ankle. The injured officer required 25 stitches, and did not return to full duty until a month after the biting incident.
An internal investigation determined the attack was unprovoked. The officer was standing outside a police cruiser in the police station's parking lot when the dog named Kemo bit him. The canine's handler was later disciplined for allowing the dog to roam unleashed and unsupervised.
Kemp did not have an exact number of complaints or claims arising from the use of police dogs. But he said there have been enough that the city's insurance carrier proposed a $100,000 increase in its liability premium.
The canine unit is now out of commission. Police spokesman Sgt. Lenny Caponigro said the department's remaining two police dogs have not been on the job for approximately two months. Kemp said the dogs will not return to active duty.
This is not the first time the city eliminated the department's canine unit. Budget cuts had ended the use of police dogs in 1991. Five years later, the City Council revived the canine unit. Three dogs and their officer handlers resumed patrol of city streets in December 1996. The first brutality claim involving a police dog was filed six months later.
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