A. Barton Hinkle on Dog-Killing Cops

A few police departments have started training programs to teach officers how to deal with dogs. That's an encouraging start. But mere mechanics will not suffice. After all, most departments have a mechanical approach in place already: If an officer feels endangered, then lethal force is justified. The trouble with this approach is that—as most people intuitively grasp—lethal force is rarely justified, writes A. Barton Hinkle, especially when it is the first resort rather than the last.