The media portrays police dogs as friendly pups. But Black people's history with police dogs is violent and terrifying. And our dollars continue paying for it today.
What started as a few attack dogs in Birmingham spiraled into the current fleet of 50,000 canine units nationwide. Every major city has at least one K-9 officer on their force. This is costly.
To train these animals, police departments spend roughly $15,000 per dog per year. Removing upkeep costs, that's $750 million spent on K9 officers. The worst part of this equation is that we're helping pay for it.
Local municipalities pass bigger police budgets every year. So not only are we paying for it out of pocket via our taxes, but we're also paying for it because these dogs disproportionately attack Black people.
Police began using dogs to terrorize Black protesters during the civil rights movement. When they saw that they could get away with it, they began funneling millions into it. They may be cute and fluffy, but #ACAB means ALL, attack dogs included.