Police Dog's Sniff Outside of Home Should be Unconstitutional (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Supreme Court will be deciding soon whether to take a case regarding whether a police dog's sniff for marijuana outside a home is enough to justify a search warrant. The question, according to the article, is whether such police dog sniff is a violation of a citizen's Constitutional Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Like the Florida Supreme Court, which sided with the defendant in the case, Joelis Jardines, I believe using the dog's indication or signal as an establishment of probable cause is constitutionally out of bounds. A home search is different than a search on a public roadway or in a public airport terminal.

There is a higher expectation of privacy in regards to one's home, and there is a reasonable expectation that law enforcement, with only an anonymous tip to go on, would not be taking drug sniffing dogs onto one's property to sniff around the door of one's home. Such presence of the dog would only make sense after a warrant was obtained, as this dog -- as a canine member of the police force -- is conducting the search.

Further, these dogs can and do make mistakes, as do their handlers in interpreting their indications. Indeed, the dog in this case was accurate in its reaction to the drugs in the home. Certainly, there were drugs confiscated and an arrest made.

The suspect, according to the article, is in trouble for other crimes, in addition to the marijuana that was discovered in his home. Had the police found another, legal and constitutional means by which to obtain probable cause to search the home, the outcome of the case would have been a clear conviction instead of repeated trials as the case made its way through Florida courts and now, if the Supreme Court so chooses, on to the highest court in the land.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120104/cm_ac/10790091_police_dogs_sniff_outside_of_home_should_be_unconstitutional

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