It's the middle of the night on a dark suburban street.
Police are looking for a number of people after receiving calls about cars and homes being broken into and at least one person being threatened with a weapon.
In a bid to find them, officers on the beat are joined by a police dog and his handler.
That proves to be a crucial turning point of the night.
Not long after, a 13-year-old boy is rushed to hospital with severe injuries to his face, neck and arms — and his family is now demanding answers.
The teenager has not been the subject of any charges.
The incident has raised questions about what place the canine unit has in WA Police's arsenal.
WA Police and the government have said they were comfortable the right decisions were made on the night.
"Had they known that there were juveniles involved, I am advised they wouldn't have released any dogs from any vehicles," Premier Mark McGowan explained on Thursday.
"But they didn't know there were juveniles involved."
Today his colleague Police Minister Paul Papalia agreed, adding that it was "very distressing" that the boy was "out at 11:40 on a Sunday night, very far from home in the company of people allegedly committing crimes".
A spokesperson for Mr Papalia said the dog that bit the boy had been deployed to more than 450 incidents this year.
Of those, he said the canine had only been directly used to arrest five people, and had only been released on two of those occasions.
It followed comments by WA Police Deputy Commissioner Kylie Whiteley earlier in the week, explaining the deployment of the dog.
"A police dog is only deployed in certain circumstances, and particularly when there's a series of incidents," she said.
"On this evening, there were 10 calls to the police and there was a series of fairly serious incidents including aggravated burglaries.
"It was appropriate the dog was deployed to the incident, and they're the sorts of incidents we expect a canine unit to attend to."
Canine use under microscope
The use of the canine unit has been under scrutiny for some time, with the WA Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) finding earlier this year that 61 per cent of all police dog deployments in 2020/21 targeted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The over-representation of that group, including juveniles, was a fact repeatedly described in the report as "concerning".
But these figures alone shed little light on why police dogs are used more in apprehending Indigenous people than non-Indigenous suspects.
Premier McGowan denied race had played into the recent incident, and said officers did not know the races of the people they were looking for.
Police were asked, but did not provide, a breakdown of arrest rates for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people by comparison.
But in response to the CCC report, WA Police said the over-representation in police dog deployments involving Indigenous people may be a reflection of the broader over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system in general.
That included higher proportions of Indigenous people in regional WA where some incidents happened.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that, on average between June and August, 40 per cent of people in West Australian prisons were Indigenous, despite First Nations people making up only four per cent of the state's population.
The CCC said it "could not identify any internal police procedures, practices or bias which might account for this over-representation".
"The review has not identified any evidence of canine handlers culturally targeting Aboriginal persons in the deployment of police dogs," it stated.
"However, whatever the reason, the high representation is concerning."
The report recommended the police force "undertake further analysis" to explore reasons for the higher-than-expected rate.
Mr Papalia today described the over-representation as a "superficial analysis".
"Are the [CCC] suggesting that police should only use a police dog when non-Aboriginal people are involved in the offending?" he said.
"If you're looking at who encounters a police dog, it's a direct correlation to who's committing crimes in those situations.
"Police dogs are really well trained. There'll be an investigation into this incident, as there always is whenever there's an incident with a police dog … and if there's training changes that need to be made, they will be made."
'Ambiguity' in how police dogs are used
Broad WA Police policies require officers to use the least force necessary to resolve a situation, with the CCC report describing the use of a dog as sitting "between a taser and a firearm".
But the CCC report noted "ambiguity" in how police dogs are meant to be used, because officers relied on lesson plans from training — rather than defined policies and procedures — to make operational decisions.
It recommended police develop those procedures.
"If there is any issue with the guidance to police dogs I'm not aware of it," Mr Papalia said.
"I know that our Western Australian police dogs are the best trained in the country.
In response to questions from the ABC about how much work has been done so far, WA Police only said it was "continuing to work through" the report's recommendations.
"Use of force, including deployment of canine, is subject of ongoing review, including oversight by the CCC and discussion with other jurisdictions to ensure best contemporary practice is used," a spokesperson said.
Human rights issue
Academics believe this month's severe dog bite incident of a teenage boy should spark further conversations about when police dogs are used.
Among them is University of Technology Sydney's Thalia Anthony, whose research considers the effects of systemic racism on First Nations people in the criminal justice system.
"The officer needs to be aware of the identity of the person [before deploying a dog], and a dog should never be used against a child," she said.
"I would suggest that they should also be used very, very cautiously against adults.
"And unless there is very strong grounds, I would suggest that dogs should only be used in the rarest of incidents."
Noongar legal academic Hannah McGlade said the recent dog bite should make "everyone angry for children, youth, who are targeted by police".
"Did [the boy] deserve to end up in hospital with dog bites?" she said.
While WA Police said it was working through the CCC recommendations, Dr McGlade said more urgent action was needed.
"It's incumbent on them to address this situation," she said.
"Law enforcement has a positive duty to actually ensure that it's not perpetrating racism through policing.
"That's a human rights duty under international law."
