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Their use of drug dogs is a critical factor that should be mentioned there.. once a car's flagged by a dog, there is probable cause for a further search federal
by rphlx 9y ago
Their use of drug dogs is a critical factor that should be mentioned there.. once a car's flagged by a dog, there is probable cause for a further search federally and in most states. So for better or worse I believe their actions were consistent with current Federal laws and any resulting federal drug charges would be difficult to challenge as resulting from an illegal search.
AFAICT from that article, they did not attempt warrantless searches on cars (or individual US citizens) that were not flagged by the dogs.
- ubernostrum 9y agoRegardless of legal precedent, dogs are known to be a way to manufacture probable cause -- if the officer wants to search, they can find a way to make the dog "alert", or claim that it did.
- rphlx 9y agoThat's certainly true and I do wish they would move to a non-animal-based sensor to reduce that vuln.