Letter Sent To PG Country Police Chief Melvin High

Chief of Police, Melvin C. High
7600 Barlowe Road
Landover, Maryland 20785
301-333-4000

Dear Chief High:

Thank you for showing leadership by quickly clearing Mayor Calvo of any wrongdoing in the tragic events of July 29th and expressing regret over the incident. Unfortunately, however, you nullified your good actions by not going far enough and offering an apology for what happened, not only to Mayor Calvo and his family, but to the citizens of the nation, many of whom also suffered over the senseless, brutal killing of Calvo's beloved, innocent dogs. We the public are getting fed up with the minority of police officers who cowardly hide behind their so-called qualified immunity and get away with it simply by saying that they felt threatened by the dogs. Those who do, inflict damage not only on the public but on the majority of officers who act responsibly and compassionately even without training on how to handle animals. If our dogs are so threatening why aren't we reading about supposedly fearless, strapping adults being seriously bitten by dogs every day, including firefighters and postal workers for that matter? The answer is, of course, that we do not because most all dogs are not threatening and service workers can all be trained to recognize aggressive canine behavior, defuse it where it does happen, and quickly counter it by appropriate use of force when it cannot be deferred, even in crime settings where quick response is often needed. And all of this is primarily for the officers' safety, not to mention welfare, as I am sure the officers involved in the July 29th incident will soon find out.

I urge you to contact the ASPCA in New York, whose training program has reduced the number of shootings of dogs by police to effectively zero. I also urge you to contact DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier (or Police Academy director Inspector Victor Brito) who at the urging of the public just initiated a model training program for all the MPD's officers on how to handle dogs. The MPD was bravely and responsibly willing to admit their shortcomings and do something immediately to fix them. That is the leadership we the public expect from those charged with protecting us. I also urge you to impose accountability on your officers by requiring all uses of force to be investigat ed by professional, independent teams, instead of some local police officers who have no incentive to produce fair reports that will lead to remedying the problem and improving the safety of the officers and the public. If you do not do these things yourself, they will surely be imposed on you. Show some leadership (not to mention compassion), and take the lead on these matters. But you will not be effective with any of these things, unless you show remorse for what your men did by apologizing for your mistakes. That may not be what you were train ed to do, but it is the human thing to do.

Thank you for reading this. We will be happy to offer any assistance we can with any of the above suggestions, just as similar assistance was offered to MPD Chief Lanier, who responsibly accepted the offer from the public to partner with the police department to improve the situation for the officers and the public.

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