RRC Archives

Friday the 13: Nada Tunnel road block, 4 p.m., KSP officer asks, "Sir, do have any marijuana, meth, speed, or cocaine in your car?"

"No."

"Sir, do you mind if we search your vehicle?"

"I do mind...I'm kinda busy."

"Sir, we will not search your car, but we will run a K-9 unit around your vehicle. Please roll up all of your windows, including sunroof, turn your air ventilation on high and just relax."

Sniff....snifff....(no bark, no howl, no damn signal whatsoever)...

"Sir, we have detected the presence of contraband. Please remove yourself and restrain your two large dogs so we may conduct a vehicle search."

...10 minutes or so of picking through my car.... no contraband was found. I'm far from knowledgeable about the cues given by drug sniffing dogs, but I suspect certain bumper stickers reek with probable cause. Then again maybe I was profiled. Scuzzy white dude in a beat-up car with two big dogs....I'm a mobile meth lab.

so, what happened?

The dogs alert. They do not bark or howl. Generally, they either sit near the spot where they detect the odor, paw the area, or give some other subtle signal. They are trained to behave that way so that if they detect drugs in a dangerous situation the suspect isn't alerted.

Still, that sucks man.

You are obviously a dirt bag. GUILTY!

The officer did say his dog "alerted" contraband....which was below my threshold of observation. The beast was a good looking dog though, a rather large german shepherd with paws the size of grapefruit, that jumped around my car....scratching my paint job, such that it is...

What happened? Nothing, 'cause I'm no dope smuggler.

What's the big picture? Since I refused a search, I think the coppers pulled out the k-9 unit and falsified an 'alert' not to get access to my car, but to show authority.

Lesson learned? To avoid any incident with the authorities, make sure you shower, shave, and drive a late-model american SUV with W sticker on the back when you visit the Red.

I have heard that a mobile meth lab was discovered & busted in the Gorge recently so the road block is not suprising.

Who exactly hasn't kissed all their privacy rights goodbye already? Now that the fascists are running the show I wouldn't be surprised if they'll start doing random anal cavity checks: "Sir, you appear to be guilty. Please spread your cheeks or I will taser you until you beg me to probe you." "Land of the Free" my ass.

I heard about someone who had a meth lab set up on the back of a bicycle once. They shouldn't need a dog to find them, though. From what I've heard the things smell so bad you can find them from about a 1/4 mile away.

Anybody know if they actually train the dog on which alert signal to use or if they just reinforce whatever the dog does? I've heard of them peeing to alert and all sorts of stuff.

They train the dog to use pre-determined alert signals.

Oh and Alan Evil, the Supreme Court recently ruled that using K-9s is not an infringement upon a recognized right.

quote:
What's the big picture? Since I refused a search, I think the coppers pulled out the k-9 unit and falsified an 'alert' not to get access to my car, but to show authority.

so there you have it, not Boyd in particular, the public's relationship with law enforcement erodes further. There is no way to prevent abuse. You can always blame the dog. Why bother with the expense of training them? Why have them at all?
Maybe each false alert should be recorded, along with the officer trained to interpret them. After a certain number of them, each is independently tested to see if they know what the heck they are doing. Scary thinking your job is in the hands of an animal if he scores ok.