Michigan soldier charged with felony in arrest in which dog was put on man for almost 4 minutes

A Michigan State Police Soldier has been charged in an incident in which he placed his dog on a driver and kept the animal biting the man for nearly four minutes as the driver demanded to help, state police said on Friday.

The soldier, Parker Surbrook, was charged with one count of felony during the arrest on November 18 in Lansing, in which a driver with a passenger suspected of being armed fled a traffic stop and crashed into a tree, state police said. in a report. Surbrook “left his dog deployed on the handler for an extended period” in violation of policies and ignored calls for help from the handler, state police said.

Surbrook was arrested on Friday, police said. A lawyer named as the representative in an investigation did not immediately return a request for comment by email Monday evening.

State Police said Surbrook’s actions were discovered during a routine exam in December and a supervisor who reviewed the video “immediately recognized several policy violations” and filed a complaint.

The dog was kept on the handler for nearly four minutes, including nearly two minutes after the passenger was handcuffed by another officer, according to a police investigation report. A gun was found during the passenger’s arrest, according to the report.

The driver, who had sustained a broken hip, begged the dog to be called back and did not appear to resist, police wrote in the report, which is partially redacted.

Michigan State Police Director Col. Joe Gasper said in a statement that while force must sometimes be used, “care and concern for human life should always be at the forefront of all actions. police officer”.

“This makes Trooper Surbrook’s contempt for calls for pilot help completely unacceptable,” Gasper said.

A state police dog unit supervisor and trainer told an investigator that the use of the dog in the first part of the arrest appeared to be police policy, according to the police report.

But after the passenger was handcuffed, Surbrook should have worked with the other officer to handcuff the driver, the supervisor said, according to the report. There were other options as well, but those sections of the report were redacted.

Instead, Surbrook waited for other officers to arrive and kept the dog on the handler, who pleaded for the dog to be removed at least five times in just under two minutes, according to the report.

Surbrook has been with state police since 2012 and has been a dog handler since 2017, state police said. He was put on leave in December and is suspended without pay, police said.