Pubdate: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT) Copyright: 2009 The Salt Lake Tribune Contact: http://www.sltrib.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/383 Author: Pamela Manson Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?237 (Drug Dogs) APPEALS COURT QUESTIONS POLICE DOG'S QUALIFICATIONS Car Search) Defendant Says Canine Inadequately Trained To Do His Job An injury had kept K-9 officer Oso from completing an eight-week narcotics certification course, but his law enforcement partners insist he had the skills to perform his job. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals isn't so sure. The court has ordered a federal judge in Salt Lake City to review whether Oso was qualified to sniff out evidence on the night he helped find a handgun and drug paraphernalia in a Utah man's car. Police say Oso had 10 weeks of training with his handler, although he hadn't completed certification. The Denver-based court said Tuesday police might be able to establish the dog was reliable through presenting evidence other than the certification course. The ruling came in the case of William Vincent Clarkson. According to the appeals court opinion, Clarkson was spotted by South Salt Lake police driving away from a suspected drug house on Sept. 26, 2006. After a computer check showed the registration for the Cadillac he was driving had expired, an officer pulled Clarkson over. A second officer came to the scene with Oso, who alerted to the front passenger-side door and, once inside the car, to the front seats. Police say they found a Ruger semiautomatic handgun and a glass pipe in a fanny pack on the driver's seat. No drugs were found. Clarkson, who was charged with illegal possession of a firearm by a felon, asked U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball to throw out the evidence. He argued Oso was not qualified to detect narcotics and, therefore, police lacked probable cause to search after the German Shepherd indicated he had found something. Kimball denied the request, ruling it was reasonable for the first officer to search because he didn't know Oso, donated to the department in the spring of 2006, might not be qualified as a narcotics dog. But in overturning Kimball, the 10th Circuit said applying a good-faith exception in these types of circumstances "would minimize the motivation for police officers to ensure a dog is actually trained or reliable before deploying it." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin