Change.org petition demands police investigation into dog capsicum spray incident be made public

THIS is the shocking image that prompted a police investigation into animal cruelty inflicted by one of their own officers, but online campaigners aren’t satisfied with the outcome.

MORE than 16,000 supporters have signed an online petition calling for police to release an internal report into an ACT police officers using capsicum spray on a chained dog.

In May, a police officer was caught on camera using capsicum spray on a dog chained up in a backyard, with further video showing the man and fellow officers taunting the dog after it had been sprayed.

CCTV footage shows the dog running from the plain clothes officer as it’s being sprayed.

After the vision was made public, police launched an “extensive investigation” which was completed last week, and said the staff member involved had breached professional standards and would undergo formal counselling and retraining.

But animal rights activists and ACT residents are not happy with the outcome, or the decision by ACT Policing not to make the report public.

Canberra resident Rebecca Stones launched a Change.org petition calling for the report to made public, and demand “real disciplinary action against all officers involved”.

The petition gained 10,000 supporters in its first 24 hours and currently has more than 16,400 signatories since its launch last Thursday.

The man appears to taunt the dog, accompanied by fellow officers, in further footage.

Ms Stones, an ACT government worker, said the response “demonstrates a real concern that the police response has been totally inadequate”.

“The community has said the response is not god enough and we want more information,” she told news.com.au.

“The community has also said we want something done about this, but the police seem to think nothing is an adequate response.”

Though the online petition has received “overwhelming support” Ms Stones said she was not hopeful it would prompt action.

“I don’t expect it, they’ve made it very clear they’re not doing anything about it,” she said.

“In some respects it has achieve something, it has already shamed the police and it has brought to public attention what they had tried to cover up. If I can make something even better happen, like for this to never happen again, that would be a really great achievement.”

A spokeswoman for the Australian Federal Police said the public reaction to the footage was understandable because it appeared the officer’s behaviour had been “unseemly and unprofessional”.

“[But] there has been no evidence established during this investigation that the dog was injured or harmed.”

She defended not releasing the report by saying it was “standard practice” not to publicly release professional standards investigations.