Recently, the Calgary Police Service began reviewing the actions of an officer working in the canine unit who was caught on camera kicking his service dog in the ribs. The event happened during a high-risk event on a Wednesday.

The video seems to be taken from a civilian in their home.

Posted to the Calgary Events Instagram account, the person recording is watching the police events unfold outside. As they pan to the right, it reveals an officer standing alone in the snow with his dog. The dog then barks, and the officer kicks the dog.

After the original video was posted, it prompted a response from the department.

The following Thursday morning, Supt. Ryan Ayliffe, from the Operational Support Division, made a statement ensuring the public that this kind of behavior is not condoned or tolerated at the department.

“We want to assure you that this is not an acceptable or standard method of training that our canine unit uses,” Ayliffe said.

Does the context of the situation justify the action?

As always, it’s incredibly tough to make a judgment call correctly while watching a video in the comfort of our own homes. Ayliffe explained that the officers and dogs were in an incredibly tense scene involving a“dynamic and high-risk arrest in a firearms investigation.”

The dog began barking right as officers moved in to potentially make an arrest.

Giving further detail, Ayliffe explained:

“While on scene, the PSD began barking, which could have alerted offenders to the location of the officers on scene. In response to this high-stress officer safety situation, the handler struck the PSD once.”

Thankfully, the dog wasn’t injured at all.

The police department even addressed the offending officer directly. From his statement, it seems he knows that it wasn’t the best thing to do at the time.

“The correction method used by the officer in the video is not condoned by the service. We have spoken with the officer involved, who has taken immediate responsibility and expressed regret for his actions,” Ayliffe said.

Nobody (including the officer who kicked the dog) is happy with the look it gives them.

With the context of the situation and the potential for the loss of human life, if things went sideways it seems clear that the kick was a stress reaction and not malintent.

The department is working to ensure things like this don’t happen again.

With some better training, correction, and a better plan in place, the department hopes not to repeat the situation.

“I think the only thing we can do right now is acknowledge that it happened and work with the handler and continue the review process. We have multi-layered ways of reviewing these incidents to make sure that we’re balancing the situation properly against what has happened.

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Source: Global News, Instagram