S.D.Tex.: In not so few words: The bar for a competent drug dog under Florida v. Harris isn’t all that high; essentially: is the dog certified?

Defendant was stopped for driving without headlights during a Hurricane Harvey curfew, and he gave a false name and had no driver’s license. While detained, defendant was showing signs of diabetic distress. He was seated on the curb and he was given candy by the officer. EMTs were called, but he ultimately didn’t need them. In the meantime, a drug dog was called, and it alerted on the driver’s door of the car. The whole issue here was on reliability of the dog. There were false positives in other cases, but that’s not necessarily meaningful. In a competition, the dog was 20th of 27. Nevertheless, the dog and the handler were certified and recertified, and thus Florida v. Harris is satisfied. United States v. Lozano, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209038 (S.D. Tex. Dec. 20, 2017).

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