Police Dogs Research Paper

Police men are one of the many everyday heroes of our generation. Every hero needs a side kick, however. For many police men this side kick is a dog. Dogs can have many jobs ranging from: K9, explosive detection dogs, narcotics dogs, detection dogs, live person search dogs, cadaver search dogs, patrol dogs, and even therapy dogs. All of these dogs work with humans to make their lives easier by using their superior senses of sight, smell, and hearing. For example, after a jewelry robbery, a team of search dogs was let loose in a field to find one of the missing rings after it had been missing for eleven days (James-Mesloh & Mesloh, 2006, pp. 534-539). Dogs are able to help officers and citizens in many ways that humans cannot. It seems to me like the perfect police partner would have exceptional hearing, sight, smell, and have built in weapons. This is why a dog makes an amazing police partner. K-9 units are usually trained in being able to sniff for drugs, track, pursue, and apprehend criminals, article searches, and have the ability to understand the officer’s commands and …show more content…
An example of this is the case of Florida vs. Jardines. The case was in 2006 when a police officer got a tip that Jardines was growing marijuana in his home. The police officer and the Drug Enforcement Agency approached the home with a narcotics dog. The dog alerted his handler that there were drugs inside the house. This information was then used to receive a warrant to search the house. Marijuana was found inside the house and Jardines was charged with drug trafficking. Jardines argued that the use of a narcotics dog was an unreasonable search. The trial court granted the motion but the Appeals Court reversed it. The case then went to the Supreme Court where it was ruled that the use of a narcotics dog was justified as a Fourth Amendment search, thus the search warrant was invalid. (Corley, 2013, pp.