CA4: 26% success rate of drug dog sufficiently reliable for PC

26% success rate of drug dog was sufficiently reliable to base PC to search a car when the dog alerted. United States v. Green, 740 F.3d 275 (4th Cir. 2014):

Applying this framework, we conclude that the district court correctly held that Bono was sufficiently reliable and that his positive alert provided probable cause for the search of Green’s vehicle. Green presented Bono’s field performance reports, which showed that drugs were found only 22 of the 85 times that Bono had alerted in the field before his alert on Green’s vehicle. He argues that, based on this success rate in the field of 25.88%, no reasonably prudent person would think that a search based on Bono’s alert would reveal contraband or evidence of a crime. Although the field performance reports show that Bono’s alert in an uncontrolled environment does not always result in the discovery of drugs, the district court found that Bono’s success rate rises from 25.88 to 43% after factoring in the cases in which Bono’s alert did not lead to the discovery of drugs but officers found direct evidence that drugs or drug users had recently been in the vehicle.3 Moreover, the district court correctly determined that, when taking Bono’s training and certification record into account, the record is sufficient to establish Bono’s reliability.