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Liability Coverage for Police K-9s
The responsibility to respond to our members' coverage questions and provide coverage interpretation primary falls on OMAG’s Underwriting and Member Services Departments with support provided by OMAG’s Legal and Risk Management Departments. Providing a clear and consistent response to these inquiries is always our goal.
Our members occasionally ask, “Does the Municipal Liability Protection Plan provide coverage for our police department K-9s? And is there coverage provided when they are off duty?
The OMAG Municipal Liability Protection Plan does provide automatic general liability coverage for your K-9s while on duty. OMAG requires the K-9 and the handler to maintain their CLEET certification.
One example of how our coverage might work would be: Let’s say the dog is trained to be passive in his response by barking or going on point to indicate he recognizes something, and damage occurs when he jumps on a vehicle. This damage would not be expected, as the normal passive response would not lead to any damage occurring. A third party can file a claim for their damages in this instance.
In another instance, if the dog is trained to respond to drug search in an aggressive manner (by jumping up onto the vehicle to indicate something has been found) and damages the vehicle, then the OMAG policy would not provide coverage. In this case the officer should take measures (cover paws) if he knows that the dog will respond by jumping on the vehicle. This would be damage that would be expected or intended and is excluded on the policy.
When the K-9 is off duty and being kenneled, it is important to remember that the OMAG policy would respond to a claim filed for bodily injury or property damages only if the K-9 is being kenneled on city property. If the K-9 is being kenneled at a private residence, that individual’s homeowner’s policy would respond, should bodily injury or property damage occur.
The OMAG policy does not provide coverage for animal mortality, but we do have a market that provides for that type of policy/coverage separately if you should be interested.
Please contact Randy Stone, Underwriting Director, at (800) 234-9461 or rstone@omag.org if you have questions about this coverage or any other questions about the policies we offer.
