Edmonton officer cleared of wrongdoing after police dog bites off woman’s ear

EDMONTON — Alberta’s police oversight unit says it was unexpected for a police dog to drag a suspect out from under a truck by the head and ripping off an ear.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team says a 25-year-old woman was a passenger in a stolen vehicle Edmonton police were chasing in May 2017.

It says the woman ran and hid under a truck and refused repeated orders to come out.

Her ear could not be reattached.

ASIRT says police dogs are trained to grab suspects by a limb but for some reason the dog latched onto the right side of the woman’s head.

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It says the actions of the dog’s handler were reasonable and there will be no criminal charges against the officer.

“There can be no doubt that the consequences suffered by the young woman were extreme and unexpected,” ASIRT said in a release Friday.

“While this is not something the dog had done before, a police service dog is trained to obey specific commands and controlled, as much as is possible, by its handler.”

The Canadian Press