Following a citywide spike in animal attacks and bites in the last year, the Commerce City Police Department is requiring more animal control training for its officers and also mandating restraint equipment in every patrol car.
“We have more vicious animals and more stray animals,” said Commerce City Police Chief Troy Smith. “Most of these incidents where either citizens or officers are bit or attacked are preventable. So, we reexamined our department policy and we issued a new policy.”
As of September, all police officers are being trained to respond to animal-related calls, and all patrolling officers are required to have catch-poles on hand. The department also applied for grant funding to get more handheld stun guns, which every officer will have in the future.
“These are things we believe officers can use in response to being attacked by vicious animals in ways that prevent lethal application to the animals,” Smith said.
Last year, Smith reorganized the police department and doubled the number of animal control officers — called community service officers — from two to four. Training for using the catch-poles as well as techniques that officers use during vicious animal calls are now required of all officers and incoming officers.
All of the new rules are based on standards delineated in the recently adopted Dog Protection Act, which was created in 2013 in response to .
during the creation of the Dog Protection Act, consulted with Smith during the implementation of the city’s new policies. He said he’s pleased with the initiative Commerce City has taken.
“I applaud Commerce City for taking action and not just waiting for the Dog Protection Act to come into effect,” Justice said. “This is serious business. Guns are being fired in neighborhoods, people’s dogs are being shot, and officers are being put in danger.”
Since fall 2013, there has been a 28 percent relating to vicious animals and 34 percent more incidents where people or other animals are bitten in Commerce City.
Arica Bores, a Commerce City community service officer, said her department goes out on calls concerning vicious animals every day.
She said few result in seizures, quarantine or euthanizing. In the past five years, Commerce City Police have euthanized four vicious dogs.
“(Dogs are) labeled vicious by dispatch, by the reporting party, but not every vicious dog call is a vicious dog,” Bores said. “It’s far more common to quarantine an animal for 10 days than to seize it or euthanize it.”
Nonetheless, the city is regularly in headlines for animal-related attacks.
In the last month, a dog that jumped over a fence was with a legal carrying permit, and a that bit his leg. Another dog was quarantined as recently as Oct. 19 for attacking a woman and her dog while they were on a walk, police officials said.
Smith released a Oct. 7 to ask residents to do their part in preventing these kinds of incidents.
“The No. 1 cause for an animal becoming aggressive is lack of attention that they receive from their owners or lack of social interaction with other animals,” he said. “We’re really encouraging people not to stake their dog in the yard or leave it confined for multiple hours without contact.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, mmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Mmitchelldp
