Reliability Problems with Dog Searches
From today's New York Times:With Dog Detectives, Mistakes Can Happen
Experts on explosives detection say that when dogs' handlers are excited and stressed, the dogs may overreact and falsely suggest that explosives are present when they are not. False alerts are better than missing a live bomb, they say, but it is better for the dogs to be accurate. More rigorous training and certification standards and more research into the way dogs detect scents and the relationship between them and their handlers are needed to avoid these problems, said Dr. Lawrence J. Myers, an expert on dog olfaction at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine.If true for explosive searching dogs, it should also be true for dogs searching for drugs following the routine traffic stop.
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