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Going through the academy in 2003 our legal instructor taught us that an officer could detain a person on a traffic stop as long as needed, as long as it remained within the scope of the intended purpose of the stop. This gave officers a lot of latitude in holding motorists while waiting for drug dogs to make scene. However, this changed recently when the Supreme Court ruled that, "police may not extend an ordinary traffic stop to seek evidence of crimes unrelated to the offense that prompted officers to pull a vehicle over."
Supreme Court justices ruled in favor of the driver who was stopped for driving on the shoulder of the road and was made to wait for the arrival of a drug sniffing dog. When the dog arrived he alerted on the vehicle and methamphetamine was found after a search of the car. In the ruling Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated that, "A traffic stop becomes unlawful if prolonged beyond the time in fact needed to complete all traffic-based inquiries."
This will change the way that departments do drug interdiction and use drug sniffing dogs on patrol. While larger departments with bigger budgets can purchase and train more drug sniffing dogs for their specialized units, smaller departments who cant afford the cost of $10K to $15K per new dog and will be forced to train patrol officers in drug identification and recognition.
See the court decision below:
Supreme Court justices ruled in favor of the driver who was stopped for driving on the shoulder of the road and was made to wait for the arrival of a drug sniffing dog. When the dog arrived he alerted on the vehicle and methamphetamine was found after a search of the car. In the ruling Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated that, "A traffic stop becomes unlawful if prolonged beyond the time in fact needed to complete all traffic-based inquiries."
This will change the way that departments do drug interdiction and use drug sniffing dogs on patrol. While larger departments with bigger budgets can purchase and train more drug sniffing dogs for their specialized units, smaller departments who cant afford the cost of $10K to $15K per new dog and will be forced to train patrol officers in drug identification and recognition.
See the court decision below:
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13-9972_p8k0.pdf |