Pubdate: Wed, 31 Oct 2012
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Author: Robert Barnes
Page: A-17

JUSTICES TO CONSIDER DRUG-DOG CASE

Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Whether Alerts by Canines Should
Justify Searches

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. - Aldo the German shepherd and Franky the
chocolate Lab are drug-detecting dogs who have been retired to
opposite ends of the ultimate retiree state.

But their work is still being evaluated, and today it will be before
the Supreme Court. The justices must decide whether man's best friend
is an honest broker as blind to prejudice as Lady Justice, or as prone
as the rest of us to a bad day at the office or the manipulation of
our partners.

The Supreme Court in the past has tended to agree with the first view.
Justice John Paul Stevens, now retired, wrote for the court in a 2005
case that a drug-sniffing dog reveals "no information other than the
location of a substance that no individual has any right to possess."

But the two cases on the docket present an aggressive challenge to the
notion that a dog's "alert" to the presence of drugs is enough to
legally justify a search of someone's home or vehicle.

Florida v. Jardines asks whether it was constitutional for Miami-Dade
County police, acting on a tip, to bring Franky to Joelis Jardines'
front door. Franky alerted to the smell of marijuana, the police used
that to obtain a warrant, and Jardines was arrested on suspicion of
turning his home into a "grow house." Florida v. Harris asks a more
basic question of whether judges should be skeptical of Fido's
qualifications. It builds on research that shows a high rate of false
alerts and cases of manipulation by a dog's handler.

Justice David Souter, also retired, sounded the alarm about the
reliability of police canines in his dissent in the 2005 case, writing
the "infallible dog ... is a creation of legal fiction."

The Florida Supreme Court went further last year in the Harris case
when it threw out the evidence in a 2006 traffic stop in the Florida
Panhandle that featured Aldo.

"Courts often accept the mythic dog with an almost superstitious
faith," Justice Barbara J. Pariente wrote. "The myth so completely has
dominated the judicial psyche in those cases that the courts either
assume the reliability of the sniff or address the question cursorily;
the dog is the clear and consistent winner."

The Florida court said judges should look at the "totality of
circumstances," including a dog's training and certification records,
field performance, and evidence of the handler's training and experience.

Bill Heiser, founder of Southern Coast K9 in New Smyrna Beach, Fla.,
is helping to raise the next generation of Aldos and Frankys on 12
acres of sandy soil in central Florida. He agrees training and
handling are key. It takes about four months - training four or five
times a day - to produce a dog for law enforcement. If a dog is
properly trained, Heiser said, a bag of McDonald's fare won't distract
him, a female's scent won't delay him, a suspect's looks won't
interest him.

"He doesn't know he's finding cocaine or heroin or marijuana or meth
or crack cocaine," Heiser said. "All he knows is that odor means my
toy's there. And if I do what I'm supposed to do, what I'm trained to
do, Mom gets involved or Dad gets involved. That's what he works for,
that love and attention."

The state of Florida, backed by the Obama administration, said such
training and certification should be enough for courts.

A study last year at University of California Davis - disputed by some
in the dog-handling industry - was mentioned in several briefs in the
case before the high court. It indicated handlers had much to do with
when a dog alerted. It brought together 18 K-9 teams and ran them
through a test facility at which the handlers had been told some
targets had been marked and some had not. Together, the teams racked
up 225 false alerts. Only one team was perfect. It was the one that
did not alert at all, because there were no drugs in the facility.
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