Article abridged from Black Current News. Link to full article below.
Black people are being bitten by police dogs at more than three times the rate of white people, according to new figures that lay bare stark racial disparities in the use of force across England and Wales.
Figures drawn from Home Office use of force data show that in the year ending 31 March 2025, police deployed dogs against Black people 2.7 times more often than white people overall.
The disparity was even greater when it came to bites, with Black individuals bitten 3.5 times more often.
The findings are supported by Freedom of Information data on complaints about police dog deployments in 2024-25, though only two forces, the Metropolitan police and West Yorkshire police, provided usable responses.
Campaign group StopWatch, which conducted the analysis, said the figures raise serious concerns about proportionality and accountability in policing.
Habib Kadiri, executive director of StopWatch, said the data points to a troubling pattern.
“The use of dogs as a police tactic has increased in both frequency and severity, disproportionately affecting Black communities, with scant evidence of any accountability when concerns are raised,” he said.
The FoIs reveal a pattern where officers escape disciplinary action and complaints are dismissed by a regulator meant to protect the public from excessive police force, heaping further indignity on a highly stressful and traumatic situation for individuals seeking justice for a violent physical assault.”
Despite multiple complaints relating to excessive force, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found the “service provided was acceptable” in all cases reviewed.
Notes to editors
Article based on FoI data obtained from the Metropolitan police on complaints about the deployment of police dogs in the Metropolitan Police Service area during the 2024/25 financial year, received 20 January 2026. Of the 43 police forces across England and Wales who received the FoI request, only two responded with useable data (West Yorkshire police and the Metropolitan police). The full breakdown of the FOI response data is available upon request.