LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is under pressure to investigate why more than 80 percent of the crime suspects bitten by sheriff's dogs were minorities.
A semiannual review of the sheriff's department operations found minorities made up 83 percent of suspects bitten by dogs with the Canine Services Detail. That figure has never fallen below 80 percent.
The report, which was mostly laudatory, criticized the canine division and recommended that Baca's crime-fighting strategies be "rigorously rethought."
It also urged Baca and his deputies to engage in "soul-searching" on whether racial profiling was a factor in the high proportion of minorities found in the tally of suspects bitten by sheriff's dogs.
In 2003, 25 of the 30 suspects bitten by dogs were minorities. In 1999, all 15 suspects were minorities.
"Is it racial profiling or is it not? And how do we deal with those kinds of vastly disproportionate statistics without compromising public safety?" said Merrick J. Bobb, special counsel to the county Board of Supervisors.
Baca's office promised to examine the report.
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