Canine Handlers and College Student's Perceptions on K-9's Ability to De-escalate Violent Arrest Situations

Canine Handlers and College Student's Perceptions on K-9's Ability to De-escalate Violent Arrest Situations

    Presenter(s)

    Kathleen Maria Schumacher

    Description

    Canine units are an expanding field in police departments as they are proving to be seen as valuable tools to the organizations. Canines possess multiple abilities and there is limited research completed to fully examine untapped potential. Recently there has been significant discussion on the use of force officers demonstrate in policing situations that has caused serious backlash on the law enforcement profession. The research issues being examined addresses exactly these types of situations and the impact canine units might contribute to resolve these issues. This research project is a mixed-methods approach that includes both quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative approach includes a survey that was sent out to college students attending universities within the Midwest region and the qualitative approach includes interviews with police officers at local departments within the Midwest. Overall, the canine handlers perceived the use of canines to de-escalate violent arrest situations as positive as long as the canine is trained for the situation. The same conclusions resulted from college students’ responses when it comes to situations that occur within the public. However, when it relates to domestic situations, the college students disagreed with the use of canines to mitigate the scenario. In the end, canines have been proven as a solution to de-escalate violent arrest situations as long as they have completed the necessary training, but I would recommend researching this topic more with a higher interview response by officers.

    Publication Date

    4-22-2021

    Project Designation

    Capstone Project

    Primary Advisor

    Martha Hurley

    Primary Advisor's Department

    Criminal Justice Studies

    Keywords

    Stander Symposium project, College of Arts and Sciences

    United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

    Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

    Canine Handlers and College Student's Perceptions on K-9's Ability to De-escalate Violent Arrest Situations

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