WILTON MANORS, Fla. – A Wilton Manors police officer's conduct is under review after a viral video shows him allegedly mistreating a K-9 officer during a traffic stop.
The driver said the officer pulled him over for tinted windows, but when that officer got his K-9 involved in a search, the man began recording the incident.
His video was widely shared on Facebook. According to the post, the traffic stop happened on Powerline Road in Wilton Manors.
The man behind the camera said the officer and his K-9 partner, who can be seen circling his car, originally pulled him over to tell him that his car's tint was too dark.
The Wilton Manors police officer can be seen yanking the dog sharply, as if the animal did something wrong, and then walk out of the frame.
Local 10 News spoke to several people who are trainers of these kind of dogs. They said that yank the handler does is called a correction and it's actually not too hard of a correction in certain scenarios. They said the problem is they don't see anything in this video that would require that.
The trainers who spoke to Local 10 said they didn't want to go on camera because police were involved, but one man with years of experience said what he saw is called a "hard correction." He said the problem with it is that it would normally be used in a scenario where either the dog or someone else was in immediate danger -- which clearly was not the case.
The trainers said ultimately it was hard to comment on the video without knowing what exactly the officer was trying to get the dog to do, since the officer can't be heard giving a command in the video.
Wilton Manors assistant police Chief Gary Blocker sent a statement that said, in part, "Currently, the K-9 partner is in the care of a veterinarian where a medical assessment is being conducted. Furthermore, our agency is conducting a full investigation into this matter and the officer has been re-assigned from K-9 duties pending this review."
