TY - JOUR
T1 - Police K-9 line-of-duty deaths and heatstroke 2000–2023
AU - Wise, John
AU - Graham, Amanda
AU - Dodge, Cassandra
AU - Somers, Logan J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - As with their human counterparts, police K-9s face dangers, including death, while in service. However, police K-9 research is significantly lacking, limiting possible preventive interventions. As such, we use data collected by the Officer Down Memorial Page from 2000–2023 on K-9 deaths (N = 407) to understand trends and correlates of these line-of-duty deaths, with an emphasis on heatstroke. Following gunfire, heatstroke is the second-leading cause of line-of-duty deaths for K-9s, with more than one in five deaths attributed to heatstroke. Being left unattended and mechanical failures overwhelmingly (70.6%) characterized these heatstroke deaths. Summer months were also significantly implicated in increasing the odds of line-of-duty heatstroke deaths. However, age, gender, breed, and climate region were not associated.
AB - As with their human counterparts, police K-9s face dangers, including death, while in service. However, police K-9 research is significantly lacking, limiting possible preventive interventions. As such, we use data collected by the Officer Down Memorial Page from 2000–2023 on K-9 deaths (N = 407) to understand trends and correlates of these line-of-duty deaths, with an emphasis on heatstroke. Following gunfire, heatstroke is the second-leading cause of line-of-duty deaths for K-9s, with more than one in five deaths attributed to heatstroke. Being left unattended and mechanical failures overwhelmingly (70.6%) characterized these heatstroke deaths. Summer months were also significantly implicated in increasing the odds of line-of-duty heatstroke deaths. However, age, gender, breed, and climate region were not associated.
KW - K-9
KW - Policing
KW - heatstroke
KW - line-of-duty deaths
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85211783181&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15614263.2024.2438681
DO - 10.1080/15614263.2024.2438681
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85211783181
SN - 1561-4263
VL - 26
SP - 240
EP - 248
JO - Police Practice and Research
JF - Police Practice and Research
IS - 2
ER -