How Reliable are Drug Dogs?

Anneliese Mahoney — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 17:45:58 +0000

Image courtesy of [West Midlands Police via Flickr]

The use of drug dogs is a relatively normal practice in American policing, and they’re often used to conduct searches, and catch people who have drugs (or sometimes other contraband) in their possession. But, new evidence has shown that the dogs may not be as reliable as once believed–they are often susceptible to the biases of their handlers.

The issue with drug dogs is not that they can’t sniff out drugs–they can. But dogs are assigned to handlers within their units, who they aim to please. Studies that test the accuracy of drug dogs have discovered that dogs will sometimes take cues from their handlers–tests that aim to “fool” handlers are more successful than tests that aim to “fool” the dogs. Dan Hinkel and Joe Mahr, of the Chicago Tribune, pointed out that there are certain things that handlers do that make dogs more likely to alert for drugs where there are none, such as leading a dog too many times around a car suspected of containing drugs.

Studies indicate that this can lead to issues with racial bias–according to the Chicago Tribune:

Analysis of three years of data for suburban departments found that only 44 percent of those alerts by the dogs led to the discovery of drugs or paraphernalia. For Hispanic drivers, the success rate was just 27 percent.

Yet despite the fact that there are these issues with drug dogs, they’re still overwhelmingly trusted by the courts. Time and time again, the courts have affirmed the use of drug dogs. In 2013, the Supreme Court decision Florida v. Harris stated that the:

Mere certification of a drug dog was enough to establish a presumption that a drug dog is reliable, regardless of the reputation of the certifying organization, regardless of whether that organization understands and appreciates the importance of training dogs to ignore their handlers’ suspicions, and regardless of the dog’s performance in the real world.

More recently, the Seventh Circuit upheld that a drug dog alerting, even if it’s not consistently accurate, can be used for a further search. And a recent District Court ruling affirmed this concept once again in a case earlier this month–dogs that only are accurate about half the time are still allowed to be used for searches. Drug dogs (and other working dogs) are a great asset, but they need to be used correctly and consistently to avoid issues with policing–unfortunately the courts don’t appear to agree.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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How Reliable are Drug Dogs?