Posted on: Tuesday, April 13, 2004
EDITORIAL
Keep sniff hounds away from our cars
Most of us are willing to tolerate certain security measures at airports and other large gathering places, including those drug- and explosives-sniffing dogs.
But police pooches sniffing cars during routine traffic stops is another matter. We hope the U.S. Supreme Court nips any such practice in the bud by upholding the Illinois Supreme Court's decision that a trooper's use of a dog during a routine traffic stop of a motorist on Interstate 80 boiled down to an illegal search.
Granted, the search netted a large stash of marijuana. But that's not really the point. Here's how it went down:
In 1998, Roy Caballes was stopped for going 71 mph in a 65-mph zone, and another trooper who heard the call on the radio arrived on the scene with his dog. When Caballes refused to let the first trooper search his car, the second trooper let the dog sniff the car, and they found more than $200,000 worth of marijuana. Caballes was sentenced to 12 years for drug trafficking.
The question isn't whether Caballes was or wasn't guilty, but whether a law officer could set a search dog on his vehicle without probable cause. It ought to be noted that under the Fourth Amendment, a law officer must have reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing before conducting a search.
Now, critics of the Illinois ruling have argued that search hounds are needed in the war against terrorism to sniff out explosives and narcotics.
Sure, but not in run-of-the-mill traffic stops where motorists should expect a measure of privacy, unless they're blatantly breaking the law.
Illinois Solicitor General Gary Feinerman calls a dog search a "non-event" under the Fourth Amendment because, he says, a canine sniff does not expose items that would otherwise remain hidden.
No, but they sniff out contraband that is subsequently exposed.
If we think traffic cameras are an invasion of privacy, how are we going to feel when the police use a drug-sniffing dog to turn a traffic stop into an all-out search?
