West Midlands Police have released some body-worn camera footage of a pursuit involving a dog unit and a suspected thief.
When response team officers got behind Richard Howard, they suspected that he, and an accomplice he had just dropped off, were scoping out vehicles to steal.
As soon as officers indicated for Howard to stop, he floored it and led officers on a vehicle pursuit that reached speeds of 100 mph in 30 mph zones.
Thankfully for other road users, it was the middle of the night, so there weren’t many other vehicles on the road.
When PS John Simpson joined the pursuit in his unmarked high-performance police vehicle, he immediately took the lead position due to his advanced driver status.
Howard realised that PS Simpson and police dog ‘Gunner’ were now behind him and that his chances of getting away without being bitten by ‘Gunner’ were slim.
So he pulled over, exited his vehicle and raised his hands.
Watch the pursuit and what happened next in the video below:
Again, a stupidly short sentence give he will be out at half time, if not sooner, free to go back to his acquisitive life of crime. If he actually did the full time, it might be different but as things stand, it is a minor inconvenience for him. The pity is that he did not try to run and the dog could have then given him a proper gnawing.
In the UK, these animals are called general purpose dogs. In France, they are called attack dogs, a much more fitting title and one which I feel we should adopt.