Dr. Meera Gatlin, V16, VG16, Broadens the Scope of One Health with Research into Police Canines

“Dogs have always served as man’s best friend—is there a chance for them to do more for society in the name of public safety?” posits Dr. Meera Gatlin, V16, VG16, (she/her) in a review study featured in the September issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

To begin answering this question through the framework of One Health, Gatlin analyzes a compilation of previously published data on police canines, makes a case for the importance of this avenue of research, and recommends areas for additional study in the review paper.

An assistant teaching professor in the Department of Infectious Disease & Global Health at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and clinical assistant professor in the Department of Public Health & Community Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine, Gatlin is also spearheading a number of novel research projects on police canines, including one funded by a grant from Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy and another in collaboration with the Penn Vet Working Dog Center.

The article, titled “A One Health Approach to Public Safety: A Review of Police Canines in the United States,” is the tip of this larger endeavor. According to the paper, “In their capacity to protect and serve, municipal law enforcement assures their community’s public health by virtue of addressing public safety.” Police handlers’ canine counterparts also play a role in community safety and health, a role that merits deeper analysis and evaluation through the One Health framework.

“The idea is to use a One Health lens to advocate for police dogs,” explains Gatlin. “In One Health, the sum is greater than any one factor—they all need to be improved in tandem. I’m trained in veterinary public health. At the root of all things I’m asking about is how does good animal health ensure good officer health and in turn, good community health?”

One Health encompasses the intersection of humans, animals, and the environment to improve health outcomes. One Health approaches are typically applied to address infectious diseases, food security, and other biomedical issues. The paper suggests that the One Health approach should also be applied to fields like public safety. 

“One Health ideas come into the limelight because of the awareness of interconnected health—and health is more than just diseases,” says Gatlin. “Drawing attention to public safety is an extension of public health because feeling safe and secure where we live and work contributes to overall health.”

Gatlin notes in the paper that dogs have assisted in policework for more than 100 years, with scent detection, tracking, apprehending suspects, and comforting victims. As working animals, police canines are different from other dogs in that their primary role is not companionship.

“Working dogs are given a job—livestock guardian, police duties, hunting,” explains Gatlin. “A working dog is not first and foremost a companion. They are tasked with something and need to be healthy to perform that task. They are treated differently than companion dogs.”

With that perspective, Gatlin delves into a number of areas related to police canines and their impact on public safety, all through the framework of One Health. A key tenet of One Health is drawing on a multidisciplinary field of professionals to improve health outcomes. She recommends tapping into the expertise of veterinarians, law enforcement, dog trainers, and social workers, among others, to optimize the roles of police canines in the community.

The paper also proposes deeper study into the canine-handler bond to guide best practices for the duo to work together as a team. The limited research on this bond points to a complex relationship that significantly impacts the health of both. Gatlin additionally recommends standardizing canine police training, which varies widely across the country, and ensuring the consistency of that training. Both of these endeavors would improve the safety and well-being of the working dog, the handler, and the community at large.

Gatlin is taking the lead in this area. She is working on a separate research project specifically evaluating the handler-canine bond under a grant she was awarded from the Elizabeth A. Lawrence Endowed Fund by Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy.

“That bond between the handler and the canine is essential to do the work in the community,” says Gatlin. “They spend so much time together, more than with their spouse or children. That bond lays the groundwork for anything they do in the community.”

For her research, Gatlin is interviewing handlers about their bond with their police canines—what it means to them, how it reflects their work in the community, how training reinforces that bond, and their perspectives on public safety as a handler-canine team. She hopes to have this study published in the next few months.

Last summer, Gatlin also began a research collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Vet Working Dog Center, a world-renowned research lab studying dogs trained in scent detection. They are surveying canine handlers nationwide on how they train and certify dogs and maintain state and interagency requirements to keep up those skills, and how training impacts the way canines are used in the community.

Gatlin would like to conduct more research into this area, possibly a longitudinal study on canines and handlers and how their partnership affects the hander’s mental and physical health and the canine’s physical health. This type of study was conducted with handlers and search and rescue dogs after 9/11, but not as of yet with police dogs.

“At the root of everything I’m doing is looking at how we are using dogs to ensure public safety and the value to officers in what they do. They love having a canine as a partner—how does that affect public safety for the benefit of the community?”

Gatlin says she had a nontraditional path into veterinary medicine, “I backed my way into veterinary medicine by studying public health first.” While earning her bachelor of arts degree in biological sciences and political sciences at Northwestern University, she decided to pursue a career that combines animal health and public health. The dual degree D.V.M./Master of Public Health (MPH) program offered by Cummings School and Tufts School of Medicine integrated those interests for her.

“I have a passion for local community health. Public health classically refers to the human population. The art of veterinary public health—how good animal health and well-being contributes to that—defined the type of career I want,” says Gatlin.

The direction of her research was sown from her experiences as a clinician and in conversations with her husband. After completing the D.V.M./MPH program, she worked at a small animal practice in Framingham, Massachusetts. During her four years treating patients there, she also trained in advanced reproduction techniques for canines, frequently seeing police dogs and other working dogs.

Her husband is a law enforcement officer who specializes in motor vehicle safety. They often discuss the overlap of motor vehicle safety and public health. She cites the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of the “Ten Great Public Health Achievements” of the twentieth century; number two behind vaccinations is motor vehicle safety. These conversations and her police canine patients got her thinking about the relationship between law enforcement and public health.

Ready to return to academia and the public health sphere, Gatlin joined the faculty at Cummings School and Tufts School of Medicine in 2020. She mentors the cohort of students in the D.V.M./MPH program and teaches courses on public health, One Health, and canine and feline reproduction.

Gatlin’s work on the review study began last fall when she contacted a police dog handler at a local police department, who is also invested in the connection between law enforcement and animal health. She collaborated with the handler to perform an internal review of the department’s canine unit to examine how the dogs are utilized in the field. Her analysis applied epidemiology, biostatistics, and public health to the department’s dataset.

“The paper was borne out of doing something practical for the police department. I started the paper for my own edification on how things connect,” she says.

From those beginnings, her work continues to gain momentum. In addition to her ongoing projects, Gatlin would like to study how dogs are selected for different purposes to aid in police work. For example, some police dogs are trained to catch criminals, while others comfort victims in traumatic situations. “They’re still tasked with something, but it’s more in line with companionship. These two polar opposite types of police dogs reflect what police do; both are intentional in their respective ways.”

Overarching in her work will be a continuing collaboration with other One Health professionals as well as local law enforcement.

“I’m laying the groundwork in the types of research questions we want to keep asking,” Gatlin says. “The research is early, and there are a lot of good things to come.”