Those Amazing FBI Scent Dogs, Creating A Name For Themselves
Posted: Friday, February 11, 2011
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
I’ve always been a dog lover. Most of my best friends have been dogs. They are not only, a faithful and loyal friend, but they are intellectually superior to their own master most of the time. They have extraordinary senses. They can hear the slightest of noises and normally recognize what it is causing the noise. They can spot a squirrel high in trees as they travel through thick leaves from limb to limb. Not only that, they can smell the path he took getting to the tree. And virtually never take the wrong direction when they come to a trail. They can smell, or sense, the direction taken.
Dogs have been used by law enforcement agencies for many years, in tracking an escaped convict, or a lost child or similar cases. In more recent years they have proven themselves highly capable of discerning various smells with near 100% accuracy. They are now used to smell out various illegal drugs, explosives and various other contraband. They can smell and find illegal aliens attempting to cross our borders who are hidden inside vehicles who would otherwise go unfound. At least one such person has been found hidden under and behind the dashboard of a vehicle.
But now, they are being used to track human criminals from the location of a crime. And they are becoming recognized as dependable in this endeavor as the others. The following story from an FBI release gives us an idea.
In 2007 a nurse in Anchorage Alaska disappeared. Six weeks later her body was found. The local authorities requested assistance from the FBI Laboratory’s Evidence Response Team Unit (ERTU), who brought in their scent dogs. These dogs were taken to various spots, any that might have been a part of the crime and the dogs kept winding up at the same house, where a man lived near the home of the victim. Here is a paragraph from the FBI report which sums up the value of these dogs.
The neighbor was eventually charged with the murder. In a pre-trial hearing his lawyer challenged the science behind the scent evidence and asked that it be thrown out. The judge ruled that the science was indeed sound and fully admissible in court. Last February, the man pled guilty to the killing and was sentenced to life without parole. (A New Breed-FBI story dated 12-23-2010)
As stated above, the use of dogs by police is nothing new, some have been trained to select the smell of blood and/or decomposing bodies to help find victims of crimes. But these ERTU dogs play a much different role. Here is another quote from the FBI report.
But our Human Scent Evidence Team (HSET), established in 2002 and now a full-time program in the ERTU, is something of a new breed. After they are trained and certified—a process that can take two to three years—HSET dogs can help point investigators in the right direction when time and resources may be in limited supply—and their efforts may later be scrutinized in the courtroom. (Ibid)
For a brief video showing a small portion of the training of these dogs, Click Here
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
These dogs, nefariously used by DEA and FBI,discern even a remote smell of pot, marijuana, on a person; during a seemingly random 'walk down the block', an agent, with such a dog, can discern one who has even been near such a person.
Later, followed, observed and watched for months, arrests come down, usually for a small amount of such, less than five grams, on average, of smokeable contraband.
California's budget crises forced it's Governor to save MUCH spent state money by changing arrest and criminal laws for marijuana to less than a traffic ticket for under an ounce..
My New York and your Georgia arrests, tries and penalizes offenders with very small amounts.It' costs the state a fortune and bankrupts our budget..
This 'fishing' with such trained dogs amongst the public violates rights and freedom but secures unbelievable arrests.
The jails are chock full of such people who simply cannot make bail.
This is a misuse of "reasonably expectation of privacy" law but as one is out in public it is violated.
Hundreds of thousands of arrests and incarcerations over small amounts of pot have supported DEA budgets by confiscations of vehicles and homes connected with this seemingly small criminal offense.
It involves a tremendous amount of taxpayer money for salaries, for these 'busts', as police overtime is monumental. Citizens are arrested for small amounts possession of pot as though they were counterfeiters or rapists.
It's true that these dogs are being misused and that the law is not justice.
Paul
All one has to do is leave the stuff alone Paul. I've never taken a single draw from a marijuana joint, and have even seen very few, two or three...in eighty years. I'm not taking anyone's side here. But if you look at that truck load and that table full of big bills, there is a lot wrong. I've never known of an FBI agent or policemen anywhere who has walked down the street with his dog which sniffed passersby. They use them where they think there is something going on. Thanks for reading and your comment.
I'm not from Georgia.
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