National Affairs: Four-Footed Deterrents

When the police brought in two dogs to help flush a trapped burglar out of a building in Baltimore, he leaped out of a second-story window, breaking both ankles. “I looked at the dogs and I looked at the pavement.” he explained afterwards, “and I decided the pavement was safer.”

The 100-lb. members of the Baltimore police department’s K-9 Corps have a demoralizing effect on lawbreakers. Last year the three dozen dogs were credited with assisting in close to 500 arrests, but their greatest value, says Inspector Leo T. Kelly, is the “deterrent effect” of their mere presence on the streets. In the three years since the city’s K-9 Corps got started—with two dogs—Baltimore has been one of the few big cities in the U.S. where crime rates have dropped.

Last week, plagued by upsurging crime rates, the District of Columbia decided to imitate Neighbor Baltimore and set up a police-dog corps. As in Baltimore, the dogs will be male German shepherds, trained by expert handlers, and each dog will be assigned to a particular patrolman, working only with him. Eventually, said District Commissioner Robert E. McLaughlin, the police department hopes to have 80 or 100 dogs on duty in the nation’s capital.