Friend –

We join the ACLU not to win easy fights but to take on the important ones, even when they prove hard and take time.

Last Tuesday, we learned the California Assembly shelved a bill to restrict police attack dogs in our state, meaning this campaign may prove to be a bit more challenging –and necessitating a need for us to take a moment this morning to reflect on our values and step up our commitment to this work.

Can you take a minute right now to let California lawmakers know you want them to develop strict and responsible statutory restrictions to rein in the use of police attack dogs in our state?

Among the most disturbing aspects of police attack dogs is that law enforcement agencies routinely hide and obscure their records, so the existing state data sources do not fully capture the extent of brutality involving attack dogs in our state.

Here's some of what we do know from existing publicly available data and studies:

• Police attack dogs are bred, selected, and trained to maximize the damage of their bites and to bite with a power far greater than that of a typical dog. The jaws of a police dog have enough force to break through sheet metal.
• Despite the dangers posed by police dogs, there are no state or national standards to govern their use.
• In just the last few years, police have used attack dogs to injure hundreds of people across California so badly that these individuals faced a significant risk of death or permanent impairment of a body part.
• The police most commonly use attack dogs to inflict severe injuries on people who pose no serious danger to officers or to others. The vast majority of Californians severely injured by police attack dogs are not armed with any weapons.
• Statewide, two-thirds of Californians severely injured by police dogs are people of color.
• Police cannot reliably control these animals, which are known to fail to stop attacking when recalled and even to maul bystanders.

After hearing the news about this bill being shelved in the legislature, I woke up this morning with a stronger commitment than ever to bring light to the cruel and outdated use of police attack dogs.

We cannot allow law enforcement to write their own weak rules for this dangerous practice. ACLU California Action remains fully dedicated to working together with the legislature to create solutions, codified into state law, to bring desperately needed transparency to when and why police attack dogs are used and to strictly restrict their use in our state.

Will you take a moment to let lawmakers know you, too, want to see transparency, accountability, and restrictions for the use of police attack dogs in California?

Thanks for taking action,

Carmen-Nicole Cox
Director of Government Affairs, ACLU California Action