They are man's best friend and a critical tool for police, but a Team 4 investigation finds that Pennsylvania has no rules for police dogs or their trainers.
Police tell Team 4's Paul Van Osdol that the lack of any state training requirements means poorly trained K-9 dogs are on the street. They say that's bad for police, and potentially dangerous for the public.
The following Team 4 report first aired July 10, 2003, on WTAE Action News at 6 p.m.
When there are drugs in a school locker, Marco knows it. The dog is a highly trained Belgian Malinois handled by Allegheny County Sheriff's Deputy Jim Lancia.
Lancia has gotten top-notch training from Bill Sombo, a North Huntingdon police officer. Sombo is one of three master trainers in western Pennsylvania who is certified by the North American Police Work Dog Association.
Sombo: "We don't want to give the image that these dogs are alligators at the end of a leash."
But that is exactly the image 10-year-old Brandon Livingston has. Last year, a McKees Rocks police dog veered off while chasing a suspect and bit Livingston on the leg while the boy was playing on his front porch.
Livingston: "He bit me and dragged me a couple feet into the middle of the street. I was screaming, yelling 'Get this dog off me,' and I thought I was going to die."
All Livingston's father could do was watch as the dog's handler tried to pull it off.
Father: "He was out of control, this dog. I mean, totally."
The dog has since been retrained and is back on the street. McKees Rocks police declined to talk about the case or the dog's training.
Van Osdol: "Is that an incident that perhaps could have been avoided with more advanced training?"
Sombo: "Yes."
Any one of the stray dogs at the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society could go on the street tomorrow and be called police dogs. There are no rules for dogs and no rules for trainers."
Sombo: "We have a problem here in the state of Pennsylvania. We have people out there who are fly-by-night trainers."
Sombo would not name names, but Team 4 found one local police dog trainer with a checkered past.
Dean Balouris is a letter carrier, but he also owns a now-empty kennel in West Newton. Last year, he was convicted on seven counts of animal cruelty. Two Belgian Malinois died after investigators say Balouris failed to get them veterinary care.
Balouris was also convicted of neglecting one adult German shepherd and four puppies.
Cathy Bricker, humane officer: "I think everybody should have concerns about that, because when you think of dogs being used for police service, we put a lot of faith and trust in them and we assume they're all being trained and handled correctly."
Balouris voluntarily gave up his dogs but there's nothing to prevent him from training more, even though he failed to appear in court and there's a warrant for his arrest. The Web site for his kennel is still up and running.
One of Balouris' dogs wound up with Elizabeth Township police. The chief says the dog was not much of a cop.
Chief Bob Wallace: "He was supposed to be doing a function, and someone on the sideline broke open their lunch to eat. The dog decided he'd rather join the person eating lunch."
Sombo's dogs are trained to prevent that sort of thing from happening. But police say they know not every dog on the street has top-flight training.
Washington Township Police Chief Frank Monack: "The possibility exists that you're going to have inadequately trained dogs out there and inadequately trained handlers. Both of those equal big liability today."
The Livingstons are planning to sue McKees Rocks. We should point out that Balouris did not train the dog that bit Brandon Livingston.
This is not just a problem in Pennsylvania.
Last month, a dog trainer from Maryland was convicted of fraud. The federal government hired him and his dogs for bomb detection at federal buildings, but the dogs were unable to sniff bombs.
K-9 trainers and some police chiefs are planning to pressure the state Legislature to enact some kind of rules. First, they hope to get support from the Chiefs of Police Association.
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