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Horribly Inaccurate K-9, Justifies Illegal Searches Every Time
A ruling by the 7th Circuit Court has police up in arms again. The ruling, which stems from a 2010 traffic stop, found that the drug dog in question, “Lex,” alerted to drugs 93% of the time with only one problem: There were not always drugs present! In fact, the investigation found that Lex was wrong at least 40% of the time. The Associated Press reports:
The opinion stems from an appeal by Larry Bentley Jr, a St. Louis man serving 20 years in prison for drug possession. He argued the 20 kilograms of cocaine Bloomington police found in his car during a 2010 traffic stop derived from an illegal search triggered by Lex.
While the court upheld the conviction, it disparaged Lex and suggested it might have considered tossing Bentley’s conviction if police had relied solely on Lex’s nose.
“Lex is lucky the Canine Training Institute doesn’t calculate class rank,” a 15-page opinion said. “If it did, Lex would have been at the bottom of his class.”
Lex’s trainer at the Bloomington-based dog school staunchly defended the 10-year-old Belgian Malinois on Wednesday, a day after the court’s decision.
“The opinion is unfair and very one-sided,” Michael Bieser said in a phone interview. He added about Lex, who remains on the job, “He is a very, very good dog.”
As a consequence of the decision, he added, some effective drug-sniffing dogs could be kept out of service for fear their performance records will be similarly misconstrued by courts.
Tuesday’s ruling pointed to records showing Lex nearly always signals drugs are present — 93 percent of the time. And it cited other figures that indicated he is frequently wrong — more than 40 percent of the time.
“Lex’s overall accuracy rate … is not much better than a coin flip,” the ruling says.
Lex’s trainer mentioned how Lex graduated at the bottom of his class, stopping just short of excusing it completely. Tell that to the (God knows how many) innocent people who Lex is responsible for putting behind bars. But let’s be honest. The dog doesn’t know any better. It is the corrupt police handlers of these animals who are the problem, from our own resident liar K-9 cop here in Parma, Officer Ogrady, to Sandusky’s Officer Denny.
You may remember Sandusky Area CopBlock breaking the story of Andre Stockett last year. He filmed his encounter with Sandusky’s unqualified drug dog, and Officer Denny was exposed and fired for leading the dog to hit on Stockett’s minivan when no drugs were present. It was how the Sandusky police gained the illegal entry to search the vehicle and its occupants.
This May 13, 2014 photo provided by the Canine Training Institute in Emden, Ill., shows Lex, a K-9 with the Bloomington, Ill., Police Department during a training session with his handler Officer Justin Shively in Bloomington.
I say if the cops think Lex is a bad apple in an otherwise unspoiled barrel, put your money where your mouth is, boys! Let’s start testing all the drug-sniffing K-9 units deployed to violate the people’s rights around the world and see just how accurate they are. As you know, police departments around the world do not think keeping track of such statistics is worthy of their time. Until then, SHUT UP ABOUT LEX! He is proven ineffective, so take him out of service and start testing K-9s for accuracy.
Let’s take it a step further even, shall we? How about we start revoking the dogs’ credentials when it is found they are inaccurate? How about we then overturn every conviction these dogs help make, because they obviously had to violate some peoples’ rights in the process. Time to shit or get off the pot! Will you accept this challenge, cops? Or will you just bank on Lex to be your scapegoat?
Horribly Inaccurate K-9, Justifies Illegal Searches Every Time is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights
Source: http://www.copblock.org/135438/inaccurate-k9-justify-illegal-searches/
