Fishing with Drug Dogs

by Rex Curry

A new supreme court case states that cops can take dogs fishing. Dogs can go fishing for drugs under Illinois vs. Caballes.

It is a reminder of the police-state tactics in the infamous Goose Creek videotape of the government school in South Carolina where children were forced to the floor in handcuffs and terrorized by dogs and cops with guns drawn. Nothing was found. http://rexcurry.net/police-state.html

In other government schools, classes have been interrupted and the children were marched out and lined up to be harassed by a dog. It is a wonder why the kids weren't instructed to robotically chant the pledge of allegiance during the ordeals (and with the original straight-arm salute). A breed that is used often as drug dogs is the German Sheppard. The police state resembles the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis).

As an attorney, I am often consulted by people victimized in searches by dogs trained to smell drugs. A drug dog's skills are often overestimated because people anthropomorphize dogs. A humanlike quality that dogs have is that they are natural libertarians with no interest in the war on drugs.

I am the attorney who argued the original motion to suppress in Florida v. Gary Alan Matheson, that curbed drug dogs in Florida.
http://www.2dca.org/opinion/August%2001,%202003/2D00-1611.pdf

Matheson is presently awaiting decision by Florida's Supreme Court and the public has a rare opportunity to view a video of the justices' questions and the arguments linked at http://www.wfsu.org/gavel2gavel/archives/05-01.html#JAN10

The Matheson case points out the lack of credibility of drug dogs and their employers.

Drug dogs are like humans in that they must be taught to approach peaceful people and search them, so that humans can be arrested, handcuffed and imprisoned for decades under modern prohibition. That is not an easy trick to teach a dog. It's easier to teach humans.

All drug dogs are "playing a game," as are some humans who support modern prohibition. The dogs are taught using dog toys. The toys are hidden with drugs to trick the dog into a game of searching for its toy by associating it with drug odors. Many errors can happen. There is always the danger that the dog will alert on anything that resembles or smells like its toy (towels, tennis balls, car carpet, etc.).

Cabelles holds that cops can take dogs fishing. Caballes involved a "legitimate" traffic stop for speeding (that turned into 12 years for pot). Dog-fishing in parking lots or on sidewalks should still be opposed. Random drug checkpoints have already been found unconstitutional by the Court.

Dogs are used for humans lies. Police cannot search a car without probable cause or consent, and an easy way to claim probable cause is to claim that a dog alerted. It doesn't matter whether a dog is accurate. The dog is just present as cover-up to testalie in court. Dogs are perfect pets for perjury. If contraband is found then the arrest will probably stand. If nothing is found, the driver leaves shaken, but I know of no case where the driver even complained or sued.

Drug dogs turn simple traffic stops into fishing expeditions for drug busts. Driver's are asked for consent to search without any suspicion at all. When drivers refuse consent, an officer threatens to bring a dog in order to intimidate drivers into consenting to avoid a wait. Persistent refusal prompts cops to radio for a dog, and then claim that the dog alerted.

Any case that lacks a videotape of a dog's actions on the scene should result in rejection of testimony that the dog alerted, or did so without cueing.

Motions to suppress should argue that the dog's training and history show false positives and problems that make the dog unreliable for searches.

In Cabelles, Justices Souter and Ginsburg dissented, pointing to studies showing that drug dogs frequently return false positives (12.5-60% of the time, according to one study).

Moreso than in humans, the libertarianism of drug-dogs always resurfaces, and must be suppressed constantly by law enforcement retraining. Without constant retraining the dogs lose interest and stop performing accurately. Record-keeping is a must to know whether dogs are guessing, or seeing cues. Only with record keeping and independent testing can any judge draw any conclusion from the dogs game playing out on the street.

Dogs approximate humans in that they go along with the system to avoid disapproval from peers (teachers, school students, friends, etc., in the case of humans). Drug dogs do not want disapproval from their police handlers. Dogs play the game, and will try to guess and read cues, because they are searching for approval, not for drugs.

Dogs match humans in that if you influence them enough they will do anything -- like passing the 18th amendment. In modern prohibition, some dogs are slow learners as are some humans.

Let's liberate drug dogs. Return them to protecting people from violence and theft, which is also the only proper purpose of law enforcement. Dogs should be man's best friend, not man's persecutor. Drug dogs are natural libertarians.

Rex Curry is an Attorney at Law in Tampa, FL. He can be reached via email at: mailto:rexy@ij.net