IPCA finds setting dog on 13-year-old fleeing driver not justified

A 13-year-old girl was bitten by a police dog during the incident on Auckland’s North Shore on April 22, 2022.

A police officer believed the driver of a stolen vehicle was aged about 20 when he set his dog on her. In fact, the girl was only 13.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) has now found that the handler’s decision to use his dog to apprehend the girl was not justified - not because of her age, but because there was no reason to believe she was running away when she was bitten.

In the IPCA’s report on the incident, released today, it stated the girl was the driver of a stolen car containing six other young people which failed to stop and was pursued by police on Auckland’s North Shore on April 22, 2022.

She rammed a stationary vehicle and drove on the wrong side of the road several times, with the Eagle helicopter overhead.

Police officers stopped the car with road spikes and five of the young people in it ran off. The driver got out of the car while another girl remained inside as it started rolling backward down a slight incline.

The young person inside the car called out to the driver, who was still close by, for help.

The dog handler told the driver to get on the ground.

“We accept the driver backed away from the dog handler at this point,” said the IPCA report.

The dog handler again instructed her to get on the ground.

“The driver says she was about to do so. Conversely, the dog handler says the driver turned around and was about to run away, so he released his dog and it bit her leg.”

The girl later received medical treatment for what police said was a “minor” dog bite.

She told the authority investigation: “I said I was getting on the ground, but they went into the boot and grabbed the dog and then it started getting feisty and like barking, and I got scared at that and then I started crying when the dog was biting my leg”.

The authority found that the dog handler did not have reasonable grounds to conclude that the girl was attempting to escape, and using the dog to apprehend her was not justified.

Another police officer got into the car and applied the brake to stop it rolling.

Counties Manukau District Commander Superintendent Shanan Gray acknowledged the IPCA report and the finding that the handler did not have reasonable grounds to conclude the driver was trying to escape.

Gray said the dog handler assessed the driver was turning away and about to flee.

“This was a dynamic and fast-moving situation, which required our officers to make quick decisions while working within police’s Tactical Options Framework in regards to appropriate use of force,” he said in a statement.

Gray said police conducted an employment investigation into the incident and while they could not provide further comment, the dog handler was still a member of the police.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.