Police are conducting an internal inquiry after a police dog bit a 13-year-old boy during a search for burglars in the outback town of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
The boy had allegedly been part of a group who tried to break open the front door of the Target store on Saturday 15 October, and then climbed on to the roof.
According to a statement made by a police spokesman at the time, four units of police, including a dog squad, arrived at Target about 11pm after receiving complaints that people were allegedly trying to break in, and arrested two young boys in the car park. The other allegedly two hid in a nearby construction site.
A police dog named Storm was released after officers called out and asked anyone in the construction site to identify themselves.
The dog reportedly found one of the boys under the building and “took hold of that person”, causing bite marks to his face and upper thigh that later required treatment in hospital. The other boy then surrendered.
The same group – three 13-year-old boys and one 10-year-old boy – included boys who were later accused of break-ins at two local high schools that caused more than $100,000 damage. All four have since been charged with various offences ranging from aggravated burglary to trespass.
Tensions between police and the community in Kalgoorlie have been high since the death of a 14-year-old boy last month.
In a statement on Monday, a police spokesman told Guardian Australia it was “standard practice” to review the decision to use force, such as a police dog, in any given situation to ensure it complied with police policy and guidelines.
“In this instance, a senior training officer from canine section is also involved in the review process due to the specialist nature of the deployment of police dogs,” the spokesman said.
“The use of force policy refers to the circumstances under which the force can be deployed and does not make any reference to the age of an offender.”
The WA police manual does not make any reference to the use of police dogs against juvenile offenders.
It says that general-purpose dogs, such as Storm, can be used to assist with tracking offenders from crime scenes, tracking missing people, searching for evidence, searching for offenders, high-risk situations involving an armed offender, and in situations ranging from domestic altercations to riots.
In 2015-16 police dogs assisted in more then 1,200 arrests, according to PerthNow.
There have been at least two other reports of bites in the past four months.
In August,a 39-year-old man who allegedly fled a car chase in Perth was arrested and then taken to hospital for treatment after being “detained on the foot by police dog Slam,” according to a media statement by WA police.
In July, a 23-year-old woman was treated for dog bites after a police dog named Nikko grabbed her foot, pulled her down off a fence she was trying to climb, and held her in place until police arrived.
The last report of Storm biting a person was in Bunbury in July 2015, in response to being punched and kicked in the head.
