RALEIGH — The state Highway Patrol is disbanding its canine program and plans a new, better managed unit limited to the use of Labrador retrievers for drug searches, patrol officials announced Monday.
The patrol began reviewing its use of police dogs after patrol Sgt. Charles L. Jones was captured on video kicking his canine partner, a Belgian Malinois. The patrol's procedures for training and handling police dogs subsequently came under scrutiny.
State Secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety Bryan Beatty suspended the program and ordered a review. Monday, Beatty and the patrol's commander, Col. Walter J. Wilson Jr., announced that the program has been "dissolved" and the patrol is rebuilding the unit with new standards, new personnel and new dogs.
Under the new program, dogs will be used for narcotics detection only.
Read the full story at newsobserver.com.
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