A man who is a father to two children and used to work as a teacher has claimed that a police dog attacked him while he was trying to catch a burglar. The man, named William Campbell, said that the dog handler didn’t do enough to stop the dog, despite his pleas for mercy. As a result, he was left injured and bleeding while the real criminal managed to escape.
The incident happened on April 20 in the early morning hours. Campbell’s partner heard the sound of breaking glass coming from their neighbor’s shed.
They got a description of the burglar—a young white man in his twenties—so Campbell went outside to see if he could find anything suspicious. However, he didn’t see anything unusual at that time, so he went back home. But he decided to keep an eye out in case the burglar returned, which he eventually did. Campbell asked his partner to call the police and went outside again, but he couldn’t find the burglar.
While walking around, Campbell heard some noise in the bushes. Suddenly, the burglar jumped down from a tree right in front of him. Campbell noticed that the burglar was holding a glass and was worried that he might use it as a weapon. Campbell raised his hand to keep a safe distance.
Surprisingly, the burglar threw the glass on the ground and started talking about his anxiety. Campbell assured him that everything would be sorted out once the police arrived and even texted his partner to let her know what was happening.
Just then, Campbell saw someone’s face appearing over a fence, whom he assumed was a police officer. This startled the burglar, who ran away. Campbell chased after him, but the burglar tripped on a curb and dropped his phone. Campbell caught up to him, but the burglar confronted him.
Unfortunately, Campbell didn’t notice what the police officer behind him was doing. Campbell tried to grab the burglar but missed. The burglar ran off, and that’s when Campbell felt his legs being tripped. He looked down and saw that a police dog had bitten him.
The dog bit Campbell, holding onto his left arm, while he kept insisting that he was not the burglar and pointed out that the real criminal was running away. Despite his pleas, the dog continued biting him until a police car arrived. The police officer told Campbell to stay still while the dog was still biting him.
Then the police officers put handcuffs on Campbell, even though he was saying he was innocent. They only called for an ambulance after Campbell gave them his name. Campbell asked the officers to call his partner, who is also a police officer, from his phone to confirm his story. It was only when another officer recognized Campbell that they took off the handcuffs. Campbell managed to walk home, and an ambulance was called to help him.
Campbell was upset to learn that the dog handler was still on active duty, even after he complained to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. He said that the officer released the dog without warning and that he didn’t match the description of the suspect. However, the Independent Office for Police Conduct decided to let the police investigate the matter. Campbell believes that they didn’t take his complaint seriously.
A spokesperson for the police said that Campbell’s complaint is being looked into by the Police Standards Department. At this point, they don’t have any evidence suggesting that the officer committed a crime or did something wrong.
However, they will continue to review the incident. The dog handler hasn’t been given any restrictions on his duties. The Independent Office for Police Conduct stated that they thought it was appropriate for the local police department to investigate the incident. They want to find out if the dog handler properly assessed the
