Drug-Sniffing Dogs

Answer:

Drug-sniffing dogs are occasionally brought in after a traffic stop. Those cases need to be investigated because the officer sometimes relies too heavily on the dog. Dogs have tests that they go through to determine how accurate they are and if a police officer can really rely on them. Very often, the issue is how long the officer took. How long did they hold you there to get the dog to show up? Sometimes what happens is an officer will stop somebody on a highway or a back road and have just a gut feeling that there’s something amiss, so they’ll call in the drug-sniffing dog and make you sit there and wait for an extended period of time. Very often, that is the issue that you can litigate and get the case thrown out if they held you for too long a time without sufficient facts. Don’t just accept the fact that the dog indicated drugs and therefore you’re guilty and going to have to do some sort of plea bargain because those cases are weak and can be suppressed.