Sniffer dogs, also called detection dogs, are trained to recognize the smell of certain substances, such as explosives, blood, electronics, and illegal drugs. Although any dog can be trained, those with a particularly good sense of smell include retrievers, German shepherds, and beagles. The dog is given a toy, which it will eventually learn to associate with having fun. Trainers then begin to introduce whatever smell the dog is being taught to recognize, then give the dog the toy when they find it, and the dog will start associating finding the source of that smell with its toy. They are trained using actual drugs, although the amount needed is quite low. Because it can be dangerous for the dogs to be exposed to large quantities of drugs, law enforcement officers won’t use them if there are loose drugs present. If a dog does get into the drugs, medications like naloxone can be used on them to block the effects. The dogs will indicate that they have found drugs by sitting, pointing with their noses, or freezing.
While the dogs are very accurate at finding drugs, there is one problem that some critics point to with their use. They are sensitive to their handlers’ body language. This means that if a police officer is fully convinced that someone has drugs on them – even if there is no evidence – the dogs might react as though they smell drugs. A study from 2011 tested dogs on a course where no drugs were located and found that there were 225 false positives. Only 15 percent of runs were completed successfully.
People have long questioned the legality of using drug-sniffing dogs for this reason. In most states, an indication by a dog is considered probable cause for searching a car. There’s no way to account for bias on the part of the officer, however, and you tend to see more African American and Latino people targeted as carrying drugs.
Some dog trainers are trying to overcome these issues. The Pacific Northwest Police Detection Dog Association has a training method where no one in the room knows where the drugs are hidden, including the handler and even the test administrator. This way, no one is able to subconsciously telegraph where the drugs are located and lead the dogs to them.
The use of drug-sniffing dogs has been found constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Illinois v. Caballes, they held that the Fourth Amendment is not violated by the use of a drug-sniffing dog during a routine traffic stop, as long as it does not unreasonably prolong the length of the stop. The Court decided that there could be no invasion of privacy when the dogs were only seeking to identify the presence of illegal items, in which citizens have no legitimate privacy interest.
If you do have drugs on you or in your car, whether legal or illegal, keep in mind that these detection dogs can and will sniff them out.
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