If the misdemeanors three of the women were charged with were not the usual stuff of New York crime headlines, the dog’s involvement captured the imagination of reporters and the police, who issued a detailed rundown of the events and Bear’s service history.

“Bear and his handler have been in tough spots before,” the department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, wrote in an article-length dispatch late Tuesday that described earlier arrests — for robbery and assault — as well as evidence searches aided by “the combination of Officer Tieniber’s handling skills and Bear’s olfactory prowess.”

The episode almost overshadowed a fatal police shooting in Brooklyn early Wednesday. The police said an officer, responding to a robbery in progress, returned fire when a gunman, identified as Thomas Robinson, 50, shot at him and his partner with a .357 Magnum revolver. “It’s a big gun,” Mr. Browne said.