Pubdate: Wed, 20 Feb 2013
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2013 Washington Post
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Robert Barnes, Washington Post

SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH DRUG-SNIFFING DOG

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a drug-sniffing 
German shepherd named Aldo in ruling that police do not have to 
extensively document a dog's expertise to justify relying on the 
animal to search someone's vehicle.

The unanimous court overturned a Florida Supreme Court ruling. That 
court had thrown out a 2006 search of a truck after Aldo "alerted" to 
the smell of drugs, saying police must compile detailed evidence of 
the dog's reliability before establishing probable cause to search the truck.

Justice Elena Kagan said the Florida court had gone too far. She 
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.

"The question - similar to every inquiry into probable cause - is 
whether all the facts surrounding a dog's alert, viewed through the 
lens of common sense, would make a reasonably prudent person think 
that a search would reveal contraband or evidence of a crime," Kagan 
wrote. "A sniff is up to snuff when it meets that test. . . . Aldo's did."
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