Vacaville officer who punched K9 no longer dog's handler
(Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
A months-long investigation into an incident involving a Vacaville police officer and a K9 concluded this week with little new information provided to the public.
The incident was spurred after an eyewitness captured an unidentified officer punching a K9 in the head during a training session near his business last year.
Vacaville police initially defended the officer’s actions, only to later acquiesce to an outside investigation.
That investigation concluded this month, and the Vacaville City Council was briefed on it Tuesday evening.
The agency affirmed the officer seen on the video is no longer a police dog handler, but declined to say if he had been disciplined.
A supplementary investigation revealed the dog at the center of the incident did not suffer long-term psychological, emotional or physical distress.
The video drew significant local criticism against a police department that is typically supported by the community it serves. That criticism reached a new level when the eyewitness video was covered by national and international news organizations, which drew a swift response from social media users around the world.
Since then, the agency has been in the crosshair of Facebook and Twitter pundits over other incidents, including the January arrest of several activists who were distributing items to homeless individuals at a city park and a recently-published video that showed a police officer punching an autistic teenager in the head during an encounter.
The former incident has resulted in court dates for the activists involved, while the latter is being investigated internally by the agency.
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