It’s a dog. You can paint him blue but he’s still a dog. Nothing more than that. We tolerate dogs in our camps, but we don’t worship them. They are not gods.
I agree, they should not be considered "police officers" any more than the officer's firearm or tazer. They are tools; living, breathing bio-weapons, used solely for their effective autonomy.
They can perform no other tasks required of a police officer. The threat of release may normally be enough for the perp to comply, through common knowledge/fear of dog attack, just as having a gun pointed at someone is understood through common knowledge of what a gun does.
There is a huge psychological difference between tackled/cuffed by an officer, and being attacked/bit by an animal trained to do so, which is why the threat of release is used in the first place.