GPD’s K-9 situation reduces ability of department to catch suspects, search for missing people

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Over the past month, Gainesville Police Department has gone from having a five-member K-9 unit with a seasoned supervisor and trainer (in addition to a sixth handler who was not part of the unit but whose dog was available to respond to calls until October 2022) to a three-member unit with an inexperienced supervisor and a trainer with little, if any, experiencing training police dogs. The three K-9 teams are sent out on shift in K-9 vehicles and uniforms, but according to sources within the department, handlers have been told that they cannot deploy the dogs without approval from high up in the chain of command.

The situation has been building since at least the Terrell Bradley apprehension on July 10, 2022, and tensions ramped up even more after the November 16 City Commission Special Meeting to discuss the use of K-9 teams in the department. Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker showed a video with horrific dog apprehensions that outraged many people in the room; however, several former K-9 handlers have told Alachua Chronicle that, far from being the norm, those videos are used in training as examples of practices that should not be emulated. Public comment at the meeting was lengthy, with 52 people giving opinions on the use of K-9s to apprehend suspects. The commissioners, however, did not come to any conclusions but instead asked staff to bring back more information, and City Manager Cynthia Curry told us, “Staff is currently in the process of working out the follow up meetings around the canine discussion.”

Just two days before the Terrell Bradley injury, former GPD K-9 handler Edward Ratliff filed a lawsuit against the City of Gainesville in federal court alleging racial discrimination within the K-9 unit and retaliation after he submitted a complaint about the alleged discrimination. A third count alleging retaliation for his Workers’ Compensation claim was recently remanded to state court.

About a month after the city commission meeting, on December 20, Sergeant Charles Owens submitted his resignation as K-9 Unit Supervisor and asked to return to a shift sergeant assignment. Owens wrote, “I have made this decision after recent events have shown it is not the desire of GPD Command for me to continue to supervise the unit.”

As a result of losing Owens, and also, we were told, as a result of staffing shortages, all of the K-9 handlers were assigned to patrol shifts as of January 9. The handlers continued to drive marked K-9 vehicles, and the dogs accompanied the handlers during their shifts, but handlers were told that they could not deploy the dogs.

Before January 9, handlers were assigned to full-time K-9 duties and were able to respond to in-progress crimes as needed and act as backup for other officers, but K-9 teams are now assigned to a zone, working a patrol shift.

The loss of the unit left GPD without an important tool for apprehending suspects who run, for conducting searches in buildings, and for locating missing persons. The Mutual Aid Agreement between the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ASO) and GPD (signed January 20, 2021, and in effect through January 14, 2026) allows for but does not require ASO to provide assistance to GPD; an ASO spokesman told us the agency will not provide K-9 assistance to GPD except in an “exigent” situation.

Decisions to deploy the dogs are made on a case-by-case basis

Two GPD K-9 handlers who were at the scene of a foot chase on January 16 did not deploy their dogs, but a GPD K-9 was deployed on January 17 after a suspect allegedly pulled a gun on an officer and then ran. 

Police departments who cannot provide evidence of ongoing training are vulnerable to lawsuits if a suspect is injured, so we asked GPD on January 18 whether anything had changed since January 9. We were told that “in the past seven days,” Acting Sergeant Dylan Hayes-Morrison had been named as supervisor of the unit, and Officer Jamie Hope was identified as a trainer; training was scheduled to resume on January 20. GPD also said that the “armed confrontation with a GPD officer necessitated the need for immediate apprehension due to the significant threat to public safety” and that the deployment was authorized by Chief Lonnie Scott. 

Sources within the department tell us that although the teams are visible during their shifts in K-9 vehicles and K-9 uniforms, there has been no change to the instruction given by email on January 6 that the dogs “will not be deployed” from the vehicle for enforcement actions.

On January 24, GPD officers found a woman hiding in a shower after conducting a security sweep of an apartment; this is a situation in which dogs would typically be used to both locate the suspect and protect officers from an ambush, but no dogs were deployed in the search.

New K-9 leaders are inexperienced in their roles

The new K-9 Unit Supervisor, Acting Sergeant Dylan Hayes-Morrison, joined the K-9 team in October 2017, attended Police Canine School between November 2017 and January 2018, and has completed two Advanced K-9 training courses. He joined GPD in 2009 and has worked as a patrol officer, liaison to the Gainesville Housing Authority, Narcotics Investigator, Burglary Detective, Street Crimes Investigator, Corporal (patrol), and K-9 Unit Corporal. 

Officer Norwood “Jamie” Hope, the new K-9 trainer, was a K-9 handler between 2006 and 2013, completed training as a K-9 Instructor in 2011, and was certified as an Instructor in 2014, according to FDLE records. He has served in the GPD SWAT and Sniper teams. We asked whether Officer Hope had trained any K-9 teams, and GPD did not answer the question.

On January 20, another member of the unit, Corporal Rob Rogers, resigned from the K-9 unit “due to unforeseen personal circumstances” but remains in his patrol assignment. That leaves only three K-9 teams in the unit.

“The most valuable thing the dog brings is his nose”

K-9 units have become widely used in law enforcement because they aid in apprehending suspects, locating evidence, and detecting drugs and explosives; the dogs can also go into buildings first, protecting their handlers and other officers when the location of a suspect is not known. In addition, dogs are used to track lost elderly people and lost children. GPD’s dogs are currently not available to deploy in any of these situations unless handlers receive permission, and the information provided to Alachua Chronicle indicates that those decisions are being made in the heat of the moment rather than based on any guidelines.  

Donald Suereth, who was a K-9 handler with GPD for over 18 years, has many years of experience as a K-9 trainer and evaluator, and wrote the first K-9 policy for GPD, told us that “handcuffing the police department by restricting the use of K-9s is ridiculous. You’ve taken away the most important aspect of K-9 police work when you don’t allow them to track. Both of my dogs saved my life, and I have seen dogs save many K-9 handlers’ and other officers’ lives. GPD has always had a well-trained K-9 unit, and that is invaluable.”

Suereth said that activists who have been trying to get rid of the GPD K-9 unit since the Bradley apprehension focus on the dog’s teeth and the potential for injury, but “the most valuable thing the dog brings is his nose.”

Suereth concluded, “K-9 units are essential to police work; if you don’t have one, you need to get one.”