Vancouver Police are confident the four-legged members of the force are being properly trained and deployed.
 
The BC Government is now investigating whether province-wide standards are needed for regulating police service dogs.
 
Sgt. Randy Fincham says the system currently being used by the VPD seems to work best for them.

"Two different techniques that are used traditionally, bite and hold technique and the bark and hold technique. And, what we found with the VPD that training dogs in the bite and hold technique, the handler is the one that decides whether the dog is going to respond in an aggressive manner. Opposite to that, you would have the bark and hold technique. You're leaving it up to a canine to make that determination if its appropriate to bite the person or not."

As for complaints about dogs being responsible for nearly half the injuries linked to arrests by municipal police, Fincham says numbers vary depending on the size of each force.