De-fanged

Objectives Test the immediate and sustained impact of suspending a police K9 program on officer injury, suspect injury, and suspect resistance rates. Methods A large municipal policing agency housing one of the oldest K9 programs in the USA suddenly terminated the program at the close of summer 2020. We exploit this change as a natural experiment to test three hypotheses related to rates of injuries (officer and suspect) and resisting arrest. We use Bayesian modeling in an interrupted time series analysis to measure the immediate and long-term effects of the K9 apprehension program’s suspension on our hypotheses. Results The sudden suspension of K9 apprehension was not associated with a statistical increase in officer or suspect injury, or suspect resistance, during felony arrests. Conclusions As police agencies, communities, and stakeholders renegotiate the risks of policing, constraints on using police K9s are unlikely to impact aggregate officer or suspect safety negatively.