Trolling for Mules

A story from the Plain Dealer, published on their blog gives an inside look on what Ohio State Troopers deal with. The tale for one officer is driving around all day with a dog in the car, going from one traffic stop to another so the mutt can put the sniff on someone.

It seems to be working. Troopers report that seizures of cocaine are way up this year. In fact, there’s been more than a 600% increase. Year over year (so far) has 335 kilos for 2011 compared to just 44 kilos in 2010. Of course, that could be an artifact of smugglers (“mules” in the vernacular) carrying more weight in a load. But troopers say it’s the result of more stringent enforcement. That’s where the dog comes in.

To search a car without the driver’s permission, officers need probable cause. If they simply search without a reasonable suspicion, they are likely to have any subsequent case thrown out of court. The dog mentioned, Argo, can do a “nose search” from outside the vehicle. If the dog alerts, that establishes probable cause and a vehicle search comes next.

The use of dogs in this manner is a bit controversial, although the practice is widespread in the U.S. The problem, as critics see it, is that the dogs cannot give a false positive. The reason is that we have no idea what exactly they smelled. They can’t tell us. If no drugs are found during a search, or, as in the article, drugs are found that the dog shouldn’t have detected (like prescription drugs), we can’t say they made a mistake. The reason is because a dog may smell something that is no longer there.

Do dogs react to subtle, unconscious signals from the handler or key on the fear a suspect might show? State Troopers are not required to determine this, and it would be very difficult to do so. However, even with these criticisms, the fact remains that more drugs are being found than ever before.