My problem with drug sniffing dogs :

My problem with drug sniffing dogs :

Lets say that I had nose that could detect drugs just like a drug sniffing dog.

If I were to walk by a car and smell drugs and b/c I smelled drugs an arrest was made , somewhere in the life of the case against the person who had the drugs in their car I would be summoned to court and placed on the stand and asked about smelling drugs in the said car.

Yet, a dog never gets summoned to court and never is placed under oath.

Do we just take the dogs word for it ? What word ?

Am I the only one that finds this odd ?

TheInfamousApe

TheGorilla

they can only prosecute you if they find drugs

Well, I'd say that the dog is used as a "tool" and the person using this tool is the one to testify.

And in a legal sense the dog doesn't "find the drugs". As far as I know, the dog only gives the police or customs officer "reasonable doubt" to search the car (or person) for drugs.

But like any tool, I am sure the defender in court can ask for proof that it works properly... (I am sure the dog has a file with training and performance records, just like a radar gun or an explosives "sniffer" has a calibration record).

Wasn't it tock who trained cop dogs in the military? I too would be curious of their legal standing...

Red

reds right, a dog smelling drugs gives a cop probable cause, which gives him the right to search your car. learned alot in criminal procedure this year.

I think the issue is whether or not a dog has the ability to suggest probable cause. Since the K-9 has no legal form of communication I would think that probable cause could be easily contested. The question is "Should it be ?"

great opinions !

TG

CBS or NBC did a big story on this a few months ago . . . seems someone challenged whether or not a sniffer dog's alert was indeed probable cause for a search. They checked the dog's records, and it turns out the dog's training had not conformed with some national standard (it only had 4 weeks of training instead 12 or so) and the dog's success rate was only around 70%. The guy who ran the USAF dog training program (Dr. Craig) for years was a defense witness, said no dog with less than a 90-something sucess rate on a wide variety of searches should be allowed to sniff out in public.

Moral of the story is . . . if a dog alerts on you and they find something as a result, have your lawyer get the dog's records and see to what standard of training and success the dog is trained to.

I put a copy of the new article on this board somewhere, couldn't find it, though. But this is the general gist . ..
-Tock

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Info posted back in Jan

ammonia........... cyan (sp)pepper......

all things that will repuse the dog, and burn his sinuses... (temporary)

and will not cause an alert..........

and have you ever heard of random searches.?????????? if you must submit... before the search begins...... insist that they list/tell you what they are looking for.....

typical answer......... weapons....... but if they find drugs... monies....... then you may have a loop hole..

or better yet....... don't do that kind of thing...

i know people who have packed there stuff in coffee and been searched and the dogs cant smell it

There's a large variability in sniffing ability between individual dogs. The one I trained in the USAF would have found it. Didn't matter much to him what the stuff was packed with. He was just awesome. He knew what he was sniffing for, he knew how to work a room. When he sniffed something that was coming from above the ceiling, you could tell . . . he'd walk back and forth with his nose in the air, figure out how the air currents were flowing in the room, figure out where the scent was comining from, then pin-point it and try to jump up the wall to get to the stuff. Amazing little dog (a little 15 lb terrier).

My problem with drug sniffing dogs is that they have a pretty darn expensive habit! :D

Fido doing blow costs a lot more to keep happy than dogs who are content with puppy chow. :D

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:banana:

Red