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Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Saved by an unproven sniffer

http://www.mapinc.org/newscc/v03/n1209/a01.html?397

US FL: Accuracy of Drug Dogs Is Challenged
by Christopher Goffard, (07 Aug 2003) St. Petersburg
Times Florida

An Appeals Court Throws Out A Hillsborough Case,
Saying No Evidence Was Presented To Show A
Drug-sniffing Dog's "Track Record"

TAMPA - Hillsborough sheriff's deputies deployed their
drug-detecting dog, Razor, to sniff around the car
when they stopped motorist Gary Alan Matheson for a
traffic infraction on Hillsborough Avenue.

The German shepherd signaled the presence of drugs,
which deputies used as probable cause for the May 1999
search. The search revealed morphine and
methamphetamine.

After failing to get the evidence suppressed in court,
Matheson pleaded guilty to drug-possession charges.
He received probation in 2000.

This week, however, the 2nd District Court of Appeal
threw out the case against Matheson, saying the state
had not presented any evidence of the dog's "track
record" of sniffing out drugs.

The Sheriff's Office acknowledged that it did not keep
records of Razor's success rate in the field and that
the dog had no training to distinguish between actual
drugs and "dead scents" from drugs no longer present.

In its unanimous ruling, the appeals court also noted
that Razor had received only five weeks of
drug-sniffing training, whereas the Customs Service
puts its dogs through a 12-week course and teaches
them to disregard residual scents.

The Customs Service requires its dogs to have a
perfect record; only half of the dogs complete the
program. But the certification program Razor attended
requires only 70 percent success.

The court's ruling, which also affects law enforcement
in Pinellas County, does not forbid drug searches by
dogs or declare them uniformly unreliable. But
without better training, the court ruled, Razor should
not have automatically been considered reliable enough
to give deputies probable cause for the car search.

"However much we dog lovers may tend to
anthropomorphize their behavior, the fact is that dogs
are not motivated to acquire skills that will assist
them in their chosen profession of detecting
contraband," wrote Judge Stevan Northcutt.

Local law agencies say it's too early to speculate on
the ruling's impact.

Susan Shanahan, the assistant attorney general who is
handling the appeal for the state, said the state
probably will ask the 2nd District Court of Appeal for
a rehearing.

"The opinion's not final, and policies won't
necessarily change until that opinion is final," she
said.

The case would potentially have far-reaching
implications and could influence cases nationwide,
Shanahan said.

Some people are already celebrating the ruling.

"It'll change the way they do their training and
record-keeping," said Tampa lawyer Rex Curry,
Matheson's defense attorney. He argued Matheson's
motion to suppress the drug evidence.

Curry said defense lawyers from across the country
already are asking him for copies of his suppression
motion for use in their own cases involving
drug-sniffing dogs.

"The whole defense community's really barking about
this," he said.

Hillsborough Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Rod Reder
said the office will examine the ruling.

"We hope this really can be overturned," Reder said.
"We find the dogs to be a very powerful and fair tool
in the war on drugs."

In the past year, the 10 dogs the Sheriff's Office
uses for drug searches and routine patrol handled
1,595 calls. Of those, 378 were drug searches of
houses and cars, Reder said.

St. Petersburg police officials didn't want to
comment on the decision, saying they needed time to
research its implications.

Deputies in charge of the Pinellas County Sheriff's
Office canine unit have been developing a system to
track their dogs' success rates, said Detective Tim
Goodman, an agency spokesman.

A supplement noting whether the dog was successful
during a search goes into each report, Goodman said.
Deputies have been working on making a master list to
track the performance of the dogs. Goodman said the
agency also tracks how the dogs perform in training
exercises.

posted by FLoA # 8/12/2003 11:29:42 PM

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