vision2020
RE: How much is that doggie sniffing my car...
Curley, that's pretty good. I recently returned from an inspection of the
US Embassy in Cairo. When I was processing through Customs in Chicago, I
heard a faint "sniffing" noise below and to my right. When I looked down I
saw a little beagle with his nose against my briefcase. Attached to him was
a leash and to that, a large Customs Agent. I also had a bag of German
chocolate hanging on the inside of my briefcase so my comment to the agent
was, "He must smell the chocolate". His response was that it was not the
chocolate as they were trained only to alert on certain items and were
pretty disciplined. He asked who I was and where I had been. After letting
him know, I offered him my case for inspection. He declined at first but
upon my insistence, he checked the pocket and did not find anything. The
entire scenario was cordial and professional and when he was done I went on
my way with no problem. My conclusion of this incident was that animals can
and do make mistakes but the personnel who handle them know this and take it
into consideration. Cheers.
PC
-----Original Message-----
From: curley@mail.turbonet.com [SMTP:curley@mail.turbonet.com]
Sent: November 19,1998 04:51
To: 'Kenneth Gallant'; Erikus4@aol.com; Cooper, Maj Philip S.
CCJ1
Cc: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: RE: How much is that doggie sniffing my car...
One other point we might want to consider when evaluating any law
enforcement method is the likelihood of "false positives" and the
consequences thereof. Here, for example, if a dog "targets" my
vehicle and it does not contain an illegal substance, will I then
become a "suspect" of the police and subject to increased scrutiny?
Obviously, I could be completely innocent--never had any drugs in
the
car and the dog is picking up on something else for whatever
reason--or not so innocent--had drugs in there a few minutes earlier
but was out delivering them when the dog approached--or in between,
my wife, brother, child, neighbor (maybe all 4?) had drugs in the
car
previously. Cars are not like underwear, for example. Just
because you find something illegal in them doesn't mean the occupant
put it there or even knew about it. While we might drive our
spouse's, sibling's, child's or neighbor's car, we aren't likely to
wear his/her/their underwear, unless we live in certain parts of
California or the underwear has a really cool pattern. . .
I'm wondering if the next step in law enforcement will be a trained
animals that detect illegal aliens. I can imagine the training
course.
Actually, I confess to realizing that I am being biased in my
thinking. I probably would go along with the sniffing activities if
it could be conducted by cats--you know, your average household
tabby. I can see it now. Three officers straining to hold back
Buttercup as she pulls them inexorably toward the offending vehicle,
leaps in the occupant's lap and nestles in purring while rights are
read and trunks are searched. Yesma'mandsir, if we can get some
trained puss to keep us safe from ourselves, I'll vote for it--cause
I'm betting the independent little cusses will never learn to resist
an open can of 9 Lives in the trunk--or maybe an unopened can.
There
won't be much threat of continued surveillance if there's a false
positive in those circumstances.
From: "Cooper, Maj Philip S. CCJ1" <cooperps@centcom.mil>
To: "'Kenneth Gallant'" <gallantk@uidaho.edu>,
Erikus4@aol.com
Cc: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: RE: How much is that doggie sniffing my car...
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 08:06:18 -0500
Get a grip. It's the folks who are doing something wrong that have
the
worry. Funny how people cry about their rights being violated but
when
something serious occurs, its...."How could you let this happen" and
" Where
were you"....seems like everyone wants to play the "I'm a victim
routine"
these days.
PC
-----Original Message-----
From: Kenneth Gallant [SMTP:gallantk@uidaho.edu]
Sent: November 18,1998 19:50
To: Erikus4@aol.com
Cc: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: Re: How much is that doggie sniffing my
car...
I would be interested in determining the pattern of cars
that are
approached, at times when the police officers do not know
that they
are
being watched. It would be interesting to see if older cars
or
sites at
which a high percentage of those present are often of
Hispanic
origin and
not well off. Based on my (little) knowledge of the
politics of the
area,
I wonder whether this campaign is being targeted at poor
Hispanic
people.
Or the non-wealthy in general.
I do not recommend keeping any "smell alike" substance in
your
trunk. If
this search program is legal (as I hope it is not but fear
that it
is), a
hit on the smell alike substance will not vitiate the
legality of
the
search. And it will mark you as someone the cops want to
continue
to take
a look at.
Kenneth S. Gallant
Professor of Law
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho 83844-2322 USA
208-885-6541 (phone)
208-885-4628 (fax)
gallantk@uidaho.edu
On Wed, 18 Nov 1998 Erikus4@aol.com wrote:
> > Under the plan, the drug dogs would be able to
search
anywhere
> >the general public is allowed to go. They wouldn't be
able to
> >search private property.
>
> Well, thank goodness for that. Only a semi-police state.
>
> The obvious answer is to find a legal substance that the
dogs will
hit on, and
> tell everyone to keep a small quantity in their trunk.
Anyone
know of such a
> substance?
>
> And please note that I'm not defending drug users or
dealers. I
just hate
> excessive police tactics that go against everything
American.
>
> E. O'Daniel
>
Mike Curley
reply to: curley@turbonet.com
208-882-3536
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