if you haven't seen the video i just posted before this one go take a look it shows a police k9 officer using his dog to take an arrestee into custody this particular incident happened in the eastern panhandle of west virginia i've only dealt really with a handful of canine use of force cases in my career so they've been pretty rare in my experience what is the law on when cops can put a canine on somebody how does it compare the use of a taser or pepper spray or even punching when is qualified immunity been denied to k9 officers for excessive use of force this particular incident happened in west virginia which is in the fourth federal circuit there are actually quite a few cases out there on this topic when a canine is deployed on a citizen that individual is of course seized for fourth amendment purposes assuming the seizure itself is lawful the issue is whether the seizure may be unreasonable due to being an excessive level of force the deployment itself of a police canine during the course of a seizure may itself be unreasonable depending on the circumstances so courts look to the graham factors generally in excessive force cases the severity of the crime at issue whether the suspect is actively resisting or evading arrest and most importantly whether the suspect poses an immediate safety threat to the officer or to others the fourth circuit held as early as 1995 that the improper deployment of a police dog that mauls the suspect constitutes excessive force in violation of the fourth amendment specifically deploying a dog against a suspected bank robber in a narrow alleyway without a warning and without a fair opportunity to surrender was unreasonable and excessive furthermore doing so where the suspect was surrounded by police officers is itself unreasonable and excessive even where a warning is given that's from the 1991 case of cop vs wing these will be on the blog post at the link in the description the fourth circuit also held that sending a police dog into a home that contained a burglary suspect without a warning resulting in severe injuries to the homeowner unfortunately was an excessive force violation that's the 1998 case fourth circuit of fatthikan vs prince george's county repeatedly over the years the court has held that generally that the use of serious or violent physical force i.e disproportionate force while arresting or seizing an individual who has surrendered or who is not actively resisting or attempting to flee and who doesn't present a danger to others is unreasonable in an excessive force violation the seventh circuit has denied qualified immunity to a police officer where he failed to call off a police dog who was mauling a non-resisting or at least passively resisting suspect that's becker vs ifrick 7th circuit 2016. that court also denied qualified immunity to a police officer who commanded a dog to attack a suspect who was already complying with orders and where there were multiple backup officers present at the scene that was alicia versus thomas 7th circuit 2016. so the 4th circuit cited that last case the alicia case in 2017 is providing fair warning to police officers that they're going to lose qualified immunity if they deploy a police dog against a suspect who's not in active flight at the time that he was discovered but he was just standing still arms raised that's from booker versus south carolina the department of corrections from 2017. so the fourth circuit also cited a sixth circuit dog case where the officers had deployed a police dog to apprehend a suspect that had given police no indication at all that he presented a danger to others and he wasn't actively resisting arrest but he was similar to this lying face down with his arms at his side that's campbell versus county of springboro or city of springboro from 2012 the four circuits also cited an 11th circuit case denying qualified immunity in yet another canine case you're seeing a pattern here where the officer ordered his canine to attack a suspect that had previously surrendered and complied with the officer's order to lie on the ground priester vs city of riviera 11th circuit 2000 again i'll put all these citations at the blog post at the civil rights lawyer dot com if you're interested in the law of k9 excessive force and hopefully you don't have to be here's a good resource for you if you are where canines are deployed a warning should be given along with an opportunity to surrender where possible deploying canines on suspects who have already been subdued surrounded by police or who who are not actively resisting or evading arrest is also likely going to be excessive force with or without a warning being given deploying canines on suspects who pose suspects who pose no immediate safety threat is just generally going to be unreasonable and therefore excessive under the fourth amendment canines really should only be deployed according to the case law where there exists some serious immediate safety threat in what can be described as a tense fast-moving situation where there's some actual reason for doing so and again not where common sense would dictate one could give a warning and give give them an opportunity to surrender so cam footage here appears to establish that prior to the decision being made to deploy this canine in a violent manner devin had either surrendered with his hands on the ground or was only offering what could best be described at most as passive resistance i.e don't don't just get on the ground but get flat on your stomach or the old give me your hands quit resisting sort of deal but as you can see is it the best time to to really follow multi-step instructions while there's a police dog coming right at you in this sort of situation with sirens blaring people screaming and shouting at you no it's not a deal moreover the footage in this case shows that there's at least two other officers present who subdue devin and they're pinning him to the ground and meanwhile the dog continues to maul devin i don't see or hear any effort by the dog handler deputy to uh call the dog off instead at one point you hear the dog being praised good boy good boy well i think he said it once to be fair my investigation here is just beginning really i'm sending out a foia request for the full raw footage i understand there's also another body cam from a state trooper who is on the scene though i don't see him in the video i'm very interested also in obtaining a copy of this department's canine policies are they not in accordance with a clearly established law in the fourth circuit or was this just a rogue incident or is the body cam footage somehow misleading and will it be cleared up by the other footage well we'll just have to wait to find out as always thanks for watching you'll find more information in the link below to the blog at thecivilrightlawyer.com if you have a video you want me to see please use the submission link if you want to hear more about these cases about your constitutional rights please subscribe hit the bell notification so you don't miss updates of future videos please also let me know your thoughts about this case in a comment i really like to hear your opinions on what's being said in this footage and we watched it maybe 100 times here today in the office with my staff and we all heard different things if you want to support the channel please consider clicking the join button on youtube becoming a channel member or sponsor remember freedom is scary deal with it see you next time