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The body cam footage does not really change my original thoughts. If you look at the totality of the circumstances, you had a slow speed pursuit for a traffic violation. It was OSP’s pursuit, their scene and their suspect. There were several Troopers on the scene and they were engaging the suspect. Time is your ally in those types of situations. Different story if the guy runs, becomes combative or escalates, but that was not the case here. The handler had better options. He could have remained where he was and let OSP control their scene. If he wanted to use the dog as a deterrent, he could have made a tactical approach with the dog on leash, activate the dog on the suspect and most likely gained compliance. Sending the dog from the other side of the median was not the best decision in my opinion. Part of being assigned to a specialized unit like Swat or the K-9 unit is the ability to make sound decisions in rapidly evolving situations.
