Tag: canine searches
Posted on Tue Mar 26, 2013 at 07:05:44 PM EST
Tags: dog sniffs, canine searches (all tags)
The Supreme Court has taken a step to keep the 4th Amendment from going to the dogs. It ruled today that police may not use the fruits of a warrantless dog search at the front door to a residence as probable cause for a search warrant. The case is Jardines v. Florida and the opinion, written by Justice Scalia, is here.
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Posted on Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 02:46:12 PM EST
Tags: canine searches (all tags)
The Supreme Court today issued its opinion in Florida v. Harris, ruling that extensive reliability evidence is not necessary for probable cause for a dog search. The opinion is here.
Justice Elena Kagan said the Florida court had gone too far, and suggested that proper training and certification of the dog — rather than how it has performed in the field — might be enough for law enforcement’s purposes.
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Posted on Wed Feb 23, 2011 at 08:40:22 PM EST
Tags: canine searches (all tags)
Radley Balko has a new article at Reason, The Mind of a Police Dog, discussing reasons why drug dogs are not as accurate as police and courts assume. It may not be the dog's fault:
The problem is our confusion about when dogs are picking up a scent and when they are responding to cues from their handlers.
....The problem is that a dog barking or sitting may be responding not to a smell but to his handler's hunch about a suspect's guilt. The reason we have a Fourth Amendment is precisely to prevent searches based on hunches.
Courts don't require warrants for K-9 searches, yet they conclude that a positive hit is probable cause for a search.
A recent Chicago Tribune study found the dogs are frequently wrong. More on the study here, and from Jacob Sullum, in A Drug-Sniffing Coin Would be Cheaper. Once again, the Fourth Amendment is going to the dogs.
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