Security Guard Dogs

WHEREAS all municipal police service dogs in the Province of British Columbia are certified under the British Columbia Police Service Dog Standards, which cover all facets of police dog training including tracking, criminal apprehension, area, building and evidence searches, obedience and agility; AND WHEREAS to remain in service, police dogs must train on a regular basis and pass the British Columbia Police Service Dog Standards validations on an annual basis; AND WHEREAS there are no similar formalized standards for the training, deployment and validation of security dogs in the Province of British Columbia, the capability, degree of force and obedience of security dogs may be called into question in the following instances: - when security guard dogs and their handlers attend to police incidents requiring the possible deployment of police dogs; - when the deployment of security guard dogs compromises public safety on both private and public property; and - when the deployment of a security guard dog results in a court decision that may compromise existing provincial police dog training standards and deployment; AND WHEREAS to resolve the problems with security guard dogs, formal province-wide training standards similar to those for police service dogs are required; AND WHEREAS establishing such training standards for security dogs requires legislative action from the provincial government: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities urge the provincial government to act as quickly as possible to establish and enact appropriate guidelines, standards and validation processes for security guard dogs that will ensure all dogs used for security purposes have at least a standard basic level of training and that effective monitoring and enforcement measures are in place to ensure that these province-wide training standards are strictly adhered to by all licensed security companies in the province.