Supreme Court limits Police use of drug-sniffing dogs.
1 replies, posted
[quote]The Supreme Court on Tuesday limited the ability of police to use a dog to sniff around the outside of a home for illegal drugs that might be inside.
By a 5-4 vote, the court said a government's use of trained police dogs to investigate a home and its immediate surroundings was a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.
The decision could make it harder for police to use trained dogs to detect drugs without first obtaining warrants.
"A police officer not armed with a warrant may approach a home and knock, precisely because that is no more than any private citizen might do," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.
"But introducing a trained police dog to explore the area around the home in hopes of discovering incriminating evidence is something else," he added. "There is no customary invitation to do that."[/quote]
[url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/51333438#.UVHsNKU3sSF]Source[/url]
[quote]“A reasonable person understands that odors emanating from a house may be detected from locations that are open to the public,” Alito wrote. “A reasonable person will not count on the strength of those odors remaining within the range that, while detectible by a dog, cannot be smelled by a human.”
Scalia said using the dog was no different from using thermal imaging technology from afar to peer inside homes without a warrant, which the court voided in a 2001 decision he also wrote.
“The antiquity of the tools that they bring along is irrelevant,” Scalia wrote, referring to police.
[/quote]
[url=http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2013/03/26/court_limits_police_use_of_drug-sniffing_dogs.html]Source[/url]
Police spokesman stated that the police is ready to circumvent the limitation and sniffing giraffes and elephants are already in training.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.