A Michigan state police officer was charged with an incident in which he put his dog in a driver and kept the animal biting the man for nearly four minutes, although the driver was begging for help, state police said on Friday.
The officer, Parker Surbrook, was charged with a single charge of criminal assault in the prison on November 18 in Lansing, in which a driver with a passenger believed to be armed escaped from a traffic stop and hit a tree, said the state police in a statement. Surbrook “left his canine in the driver’s seat for a long period of time”, violating policies and ignoring the driver’s calls for help, state police said.
Surbrook was reported on Friday, police said. A lawyer listed as his representative during an investigation did not immediately return an e-mail request for comment Monday night.
State police said Surbrook’s actions were discovered during a routine review in December and that a supervisor who analyzed the video “immediately recognized several policy violations” and filed a complaint.
The dog was kept in the driver for almost four minutes, including almost two minutes after the passenger was handcuffed by another police officer, a police investigation report said. A gun was recovered during the passenger’s arrest, according to the report.
The driver, who fractured his hip, was begging for the dog to be canceled and did not appear to be resisting, police wrote in the report, which was partially drafted.
Colonel Joe Gasper, director of the Michigan State Police, said in the statement that although force must sometimes be used, “care and concern for human life must always be at the forefront of any policeman’s actions.”
“This makes Trooper Surbrook’s disregard for driver assistance requests totally unacceptable,” said Gasper.
A supervisor and trainer for a canine unit of the state police told an investigator that the use of the dog in the first part of the prison appeared to be within 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 also other options, but these sections of the report have been edited.
Instead, Surbrook waited for other officers to arrive and kept the dog with the driver, who begged the dog to be removed at least five times in less than two minutes, according to the report.
Surbrook has been on the state police since 2012 and as a dog handler since 2017, the state police said. He was put on leave in December and is on unpaid suspension, according to police.
