Man s Best Friend: Sniffing Things Out

Man s Best Friend: Sniffing Things Out

Leave It To The Dogs A well-trained, well-handled detection dog can do remarkable things While there are no reliable studies comparing humans to dogs under similar conditions, dogs react to many smells at a threshold well below that of humans Properly used, dogs can detect thousands of scents, including narcotics, explosives, cadavers and accelerants

Steps in the Process 1. The Stop: Must Be Lawful The driving infraction Exceeding the speed limit. Not using your turn signals correctly. Cracked windshield. 2. The conversation Two Questions Where you headed? Where are you coming from? 3. The Canine Free-Air Sniff Illinois v. Caballes: not a search that implicates 4 th Amendment protection Cannot unnecessarily prolong an otherwise lawful stop

The Alert

The Alert A dog alert from a dog that is somewhere between 62 and 93 percent accurate has been held to be enough to provide probable cause United States v. Limares, 794, 797-98 (7 th Cir. 2001) The Alert Signal: sat on own and focused on the source Passive vs. Aggressive Alerting Intermediate Behaviors

Field Report Summarized

Make the numbers Apply to your case 1. Categorize the similar facts a) Glove box b) Door panels c) Under the hood d) Trunk alerts e) Back bumper 2. Tally the numbers ( Alerts )

The Dog s Reliability Tally the dog s overall success rate. o Correct alerts. o Failure to alert. o Inform the judge of the type of Alert your case. Don t be afraid to make the distinction. Show the judge that when you compare success rates for similar placement results. Trunk 52.5 % correct overall 91.2% Finally show why this dog s high reliability does not apply to your facts.

IT MUST BE EASY TO READ!!!

Not Everyone likes Math

Grounds for Suppression First, establish passenger standing if needed. Show Legitimate expectation of privacy. No abandonment Second, reasonable suspicion and scope of investigatory stop. See if there is an exception to the warrant requirement. If not, must have probable cause A positive indication by dog does establish probable cause to search IF, the dog is proven reliable so challenge the dog s reliability Is the probable cause limited to the location where the dog alerted? The 7 th Circuit has said no entire passenger compartment, trunk, and any containers located therein where the object of the search could reasonably be concealed

Dog Records Subpoena the training and performance records Decide how you will analyze the records, they need to be in a easy readable format. Focus on: Accuracy and error rates Does the dog have a higher accuracy rate of detection when the handler knows where the drugs were placed? Routine and Habit How does the handler initiate a search with the canine, for example, is the dog always started at the front driver side of the vehicle? Dogs typically alert at the area closest to the source of the drugs Remember, the better the dog is at detecting trace amounts of the desired substance, the higher the likelihood that the dog will alert on trace amounts that are inadvertently present in materials owned by the innocent.

Give A Dog A Bone: Factors Leading to an Unreliable Alert

Give A Dog A Bone: Factors Leading to an Unreliable Alert Positive alerts on new substances are increased because the dog sees that its handler was pleased by the result Dog can learn to associate certain smells with items on which it is trained, like air freshener or plastic baggies, thus alerting to non-contraband items Residual odors drug traces on clothes, door handles, gas pumps, etc. Handler cueing can be conscious or unconscious Knowledge suspect is a well-known drug-dealer for example

Framing the Suppression A Positive Alert to the Exterior of a Vehicle by an Experienced Drug- Detector Dog Does Not Establish Probable Cause to Search the Vehicle Without Evidence That the Dog s Previous Alerts in the Field Reliably Resulted in the Discovery of Contraband.

So What s Next

Florida v. Jardines and Florida v. Harris: Constitutional Significance of Police Dog Sniffs for Narcotics On October 31, 2012, The Supreme Court heard oral argument in Florida v. Jardines and Florida v. Harris. Both cases involve police dogs that are trained to detect illegal narcotics. This is the US Supreme Court s first review of canine narcotics detection since 2005 Florida v. Jardines considers whether taking such a dog to smell the exterior of a house where police suspect marijuana is being grown constitutes a search under Fourth Amendment requiring probable cause. The question in Florida v. Harris is whether a narcotics detection dog s alert constitutes probable cause for the search of a private vehicle.