OK, but suppose the owner is nowhere to be seen or simply refuses to secure the dog?
What should the cop do? Simply wait and hope that conditions improve? People could be dying inside that house while the cop is waiting around.
You do make a point about someone being arrested solely on one woman’s word. But I can see why it’s like that. Twenty years ago, too many women were brutalized and sometimes killed because there wasn’t enough “evidence” for the cops to step in and take decisive action.
As with anything else, there is danger of the pendulum swinging too much the other way, and then we end up with a police state, as you said. It’s a fine line here.
Why does a cop have to enter the property if there is no visible crime being committed or no cries for help? There is none because for all we know it may have been a crank call.
And as far as women being brutalized and killed, you make it sound like it was the killing fields before these DV laws were passed. It wasn’t any worse than it is now (actually it might have been a little better because throwing certain types of guys in jail means that they will be coming after you once they get out). Feminist propaganda has convinced people that they need cops to bust down the door and arrest any guy within sight. Great, now you have jails full of guys that shouldn’t be there, now what? Will they are now “violent” offenders so we can’t let them out. So who gets pushed out to make room for them? Why the car thieves and other petty criminals that will rob you blind while you’re at work! That’s who!
There is no fine line, our rights are being violated in the name of protecting “poor innocent women” who probably had just as much to do with the fight as the guy did (statistically speaking women are just as likely to commit DV as men, only it the men who go to jail, not the women).
Here's what Google has to say about the results of that scenario:
No results found for "police officer killed by dog".