Sniffer dogs get it wrong four out of five times

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23536

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A RECORD 80 per cent of sniffer dog searches for drugs resulted in ''false positives'' this year, figures show.

The figures obtained from the state government in response to parliamentary questions on notice show 14,102 searches were conducted after a dog sat next to a person, indicating they might be carrying drugs. But, in 11,248 cases, no drugs were found.

Only 2854 searches - 20 per cent - in the first nine months of this year, resulted in drugs being found, the figures show.

Last year, of the 15,779 searches conducted after police-dog identification, no drugs were found in 11,694 cases. Drugs were found in 4085 cases, resulting in a ''false positive'' rate of 74 per cent, said the Greens MP David Shoebridge, who obtained the figures.

Mr Shoebridge said the figures showed thousands of innocent people were being ''ritually humiliated'' publicly.

''No test which has an 80 per cent error rate could be considered a reasonable basis on which to conduct an intrusive public search of a citizen going about their daily business,'' Mr Shoebridge said.

Inspector Chris Condon of the NSW Police dog unit said the detection dogs were extremely accurate, adding that more than ''80 per cent of indications by the dogs result in either drugs being located or the person admitting recent contact with illegal drugs.

''Any suggestion otherwise is incorrect,'' Inspector Condon said. ''Drug-detection dogs are an important facet of the overall harm-minimisation strategy of the NSW Police Force. Drug-detection dogs are an extremely effective deterrent to persons transporting drugs for the purpose of supply.''

full http://www.donnybrookmail.com.au/ne...ur-out-of-five-times/2388880.aspx?storypage=0
 
ive heard about this before but if i just think about the situation it makes sense...any dog just wants to make his owner happy thats like their world so that could play into it alot..also they get the going like saying "get em boy" and other things the dog by now has learned how to get his reward
 
^also, a lot of these "alerts" are initiated by the cop. If the K9 officer wants the dog to alert, he will alert. It's a simple dog trick.
 
slimvictor said:
I bet that they train their dogs that false positives are not a bad thing, since they far prefer them to false negatives.
The whole system is biased and immoral, degrading people and robbing us of our freedom.
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Too true comrade too true.

Couldn't this be dangerous though? I mean what if some dog goes sticking his nose into something that's not drugs but something that goes boom without much help and end up blowing up half a city block?
 
They do make the dogs show false positives. If the cop is suspicious he makes the dog give him probable cause to waste your time. It's bullshit
 
I've had friends that have had false positive alerts that are just a waste of time but they all agreed that the one good thing is the fact that it pisses the cops off to no end because they don't get to make an arrest.

On the other hand, I've been in one incident, and have a friend that had a simliar experience, where a dog didn't alert when it should have-which I had no problem with lol.

I just don't see how walking a drug dog around a vehicle isn't considered a search. If the cop can't smell it then why the hell should he be able to get you just because his (incredibly inaccurate) dog does?
 
The point of sniffer dogs is just to get you no matter what.

Cop asks to search your vehicle:

1.) You comply.
a.) He finds something. You're screwed.
b.) He doesn't find anything. You're okay.

2.) You politely refuse based on your rights.
a.) Cop says okay and goes on with his day if there's no serious violation.
b.) Cop says lololol okay hold on and proceeds to make you wait 3 hours for a poorly-trained K9 unit that sniffs at your car.
i.) K9 finds something and indicates. You're screwed, they tear your car apart.
ii.) K9 finds nothing but the cop signals the dog to indicate anyway. They search. You're screwed. If there's nothing there, they say "residues" and say oops and you leave with a trashed car.
iii.) K9 finds nothing and cop's honest. You leave pissed off you get home six hours later.

K9 units are mostly bullshit. But they work as intended just like "disturbing the peace" charges. In other words, they are there to get you regardless of what is or is not true. They're a way to skirt Constitutional and legal technicalities.

Most are too poorly-trained or just aren't good at it. So the cops can improvise.
 
i have been searched with the participation of a drug dog 6 or 7 times. be sure you ask the officer what the dogs key is. the key being what the dog does in response to smelling the drugs. some dogs bark, other scratch and some dogs just sit down. one time i go pulled over and the k-9 was called right away. i had just bought the car no more than a month before and hadnt smoked weed in it or anything yet the drug dog went to my car and sat down which was his key. funny thing is that a k-9 handler can make a dog sit with the tug of his leash which is bullshit imo. well in my area they dont just search the car....they tear the fucking thing apart. in this instance i had a built in 10 inch sub woofer with a custome box. they slit all of my seats open and completely took apart the box and my sub woofer which rendered it useless not only did they not find any dope but they were absolute dicks about the entire situation and left all of my stuff on the side of the road for me to pick up. keep in mind this car was brand new. they slit the seats open, destroyed my custom stereo set up and just left without writing me a ticket or anything. i even inquired on how to take them to civil court seeing as how i had to pay over $1000 to repair my car...i was told there was absolutely nothing i could do because there was probable cause to tear my car apart. this was the last time i ever gave a cop permission to search my car and it also made me look into what rights i have when it comes to k-9 searches. a cop is acctually required to tell you what the dogs key is and even after he smells something you have the right to have the officer obtain a warrant because of this exact subject in the article. the dogs are often wrong and in most cases so excited that they often "key" on the scent of anything.

out of all the times i have had a k-9 search (6 or 7 times) they have NEVER...not ONCE found any dope on me.

in my opinion this is a violation of personal rights. i understand if you have a reason to believe there is dope in the car but for fuck sakes do you have to DESTROY the car? there needs to be some sort of law in place for things like this. if a cop searches your car and damages it in the process and finds no dope you should be ble to go to civil court and they should be required to pay for the damage.

in this particular incident it cost me $1200 just to fix my stereo and sub woofer setup, the seats cost me another $400 for the upholstery.
 
In the UK if they dont find anything they do have to pay for it.

Ive been checked by sniffer dogs around 10 times. 10 times ive had chems on me. Fail.
 
Damn, Memphis, that is a nasty story.
I feel for you.
I hope you spread the word about how the drug war is ruining the lives of normal people.
The more stories like that which get around and become public knowledge, the better the public can make informed decisions with policy / elections in the future.
 
MemphisX3 said:
and even after he smells something you have the right to have the officer obtain a warrant because of this exact subject in the article.
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I wonder if more people did this it would have an impact on how much the K9's are used in the future. If a judge signed off on a bunch of warrants that didn't yield anything, he might reconsider passing them out like candy just to waste resources.
Public//Enemy said:
In the UK if they dont find anything they do have to pay for it.
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This would also be a great incentive for the police to get their shit together about how they hassle people.
 
Sniffer dogs

In many of these cases the person might actually have had drugs on him but the officer just didnt find them. I believe theres a bigger chance of the officer making a mistake than the dog. Like stuffin drugs in a steak (officer thinks dog wants food) or stuffin baggies inside a cat (officer thinks dog doesnt like cats) etc.
 
So when will the supreme court rule a canine alert is not "probable cause" for a search? 80% failure rate seems like a rather bad bet.

MemphisX3 said:
i have been searched with the participation of a drug dog 6 or 7 times. be sure you ask the officer what the dogs key is. the key being what the dog does in response to smelling the drugs. some dogs bark, other scratch and some dogs just sit down. one time i go pulled over and the k-9 was called right away. i had just bought the car no more than a month before and hadnt smoked weed in it or anything yet the drug dog went to my car and sat down which was his key. funny thing is that a k-9 handler can make a dog sit with the tug of his leash which is bullshit imo. well in my area they dont just search the car....they tear the fucking thing apart. in this instance i had a built in 10 inch sub woofer with a custome box. they slit all of my seats open and completely took apart the box and my sub woofer which rendered it useless not only did they not find any dope but they were absolute dicks about the entire situation and left all of my stuff on the side of the road for me to pick up. keep in mind this car was brand new. they slit the seats open, destroyed my custom stereo set up and just left without writing me a ticket or anything. i even inquired on how to take them to civil court seeing as how i had to pay over $1000 to repair my car...i was told there was absolutely nothing i could do because there was probable cause to tear my car apart. this was the last time i ever gave a cop permission to search my car and it also made me look into what rights i have when it comes to k-9 searches. a cop is acctually required to tell you what the dogs key is and even after he smells something you have the right to have the officer obtain a warrant because of this exact subject in the article. the dogs are often wrong and in most cases so excited that they often "key" on the scent of anything.

out of all the times i have had a k-9 search (6 or 7 times) they have NEVER...not ONCE found any dope on me.

in my opinion this is a violation of personal rights. i understand if you have a reason to believe there is dope in the car but for fuck sakes do you have to DESTROY the car? there needs to be some sort of law in place for things like this. if a cop searches your car and damages it in the process and finds no dope you should be ble to go to civil court and they should be required to pay for the damage.

in this particular incident it cost me $1200 just to fix my stereo and sub woofer setup, the seats cost me another $400 for the upholstery.
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I told a cop he couldn't search, he made his dog scratch the car (no drugs), searched me for an hour and a half in 100 degree heat standing in tall grass. Never got a warrant. I mean, if they start searching your car, you can't really legally stop them in anyway... I didn't know they needed a warrant. I heard once the dog "indicates", they call it "probable cause" in which case the officer supposedly has good reason to believe a criminal offense is inside the vehicle. They have guidelines on "probable cause".

I was on a major highway that connects with the border, going north. I'm pretty sure the cocksucker pig just wanted to "seize" the evidence just so they could "dispose" ;) of it when my lawyer got the obviously bogus search thrown out. Ya right fucking pigs were looking for a few kilos to "dispose" of. No drugs found, just a big waste of time.


Lesson: Don't carry drugs on you, even if you conceal the odor and hide them well, odds are their dog will get them permission to search.

Has anyone ever actually dealt with an honest canine handler? I wonder how many false positives they get at the border patrol checkpoints?

I have been alerted on almost every single time I go through one, and also many other people I know in their 20's, always getting sent to "secondary inspection" which is basically just an X-ray.

How fucking random they search people all day long, but only find drugs 20% of the time? I bet at the checkpoints it's more like 1% of the "alerts" they get at those checkpoints actually yield drugs. Maybe less. How fucking pathetic. I'm almost positive the real numbers could even be much higher on a national level when you include traffic stops, and especially Customs/Border Patrol/DHS checkpoints
 
Im sure the real number is a lot less than 80%, if you consider the fact that the dog is going to signal if someone has been smoking recently and smells like weed smoke. Then they get searched, have nothing on them, and get labeled as a "false positive" or whatever the fuck
 
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