Opinion ID: 2490998
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the conflict issue

Text: The question presented to the First Districtand now to this Courtconcerns the evidence that the State must introduce to establish that probable cause existed for the warrantless search of a vehicle based on a drug-detection dog's alert to the vehicle. To clarify the conflict, we will outline the approaches adopted by the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth District Courts of Appeal, which have all addressed this issue. The First, Fourth, and Fifth Districts agree that the State can establish probable cause to search a vehicle by demonstrating that a dog is properly trained and certified to detect illegal drugs. See Harris, 989 So.2d at 1215; Laveroni, 910 So.2d at 336; Coleman, 911 So.2d at 261. None of the courts address what would constitute proper training and certification, nor do they address the fact that there is no statewide certification for single-purpose drug-detection dogs. These districts do not consider field performance records to be irrelevant; their position is that if the defendant wishes to challenge the reliability of the dog, it is the defendant's burden to introduce field performance records of the dog or other evidence, such as expert testimony. In Laveroni, the defendant moved to suppress illegal drugs found pursuant to a warrantless search of his car. 910 So.2d at 334. The illegal drugs were found after the defendant was stopped for reckless driving and a drug-detection dog alerted to the driver's open window. Id. The trial court, on its own and after the parties rested, raised the issue of whether there was sufficient proof that the narcotics dog was qualified so as to establish probable cause. Id. Because there was no evidence presented as to the dog's qualifications, the trial court granted the motion to suppress. Id. at 335. The Fourth District reversed and remanded because the State was not put on notice that the dog's qualifications would be at issue. Id. In the event that the issue would be raised on remand, the Fourth District explained: [T]he state can make a prima facie showing of probable cause based on a narcotic dog's alert by demonstrating that the dog has been properly trained and certified. If the defendant wishes to challenge the reliability of the dog, he can do so by using the performance records of the dog, or other evidence, such as expert testimony. Id. at 336. The court found support in United States v. Diaz, 25 F.3d 392, 394 (6th Cir.1994), which held that evidence of training and certification was sufficient to establish probable cause but that evidence of the reliability of the dog's performance was also admissible to rebut the State's prima facie showing of reliability. Laveroni, 910 So.2d at 336. In Coleman, the State challenged the trial court's orders granting motions to suppress drugs found in vehicles after a drug-detection dog's alert indicated that drugs were present in the vehicles. 911 So.2d at 260. Although the State had introduced evidence that the dog had been trained and certified to detect illegal drugs, the State failed to produce evidence of the dog's field performance records. Id. The trial court concluded that without evidence of the dog's field performance, the State failed to establish probable cause. Id. Relying on Laveroni, the Fifth District reversed and held that the State made a prima facie showing of probable cause by introducing evidence that the dog was trained and certified to detect illegal drugs. Coleman, 911 So.2d at 261. Accordingly, the court held that it was error to grant the motions to suppress. Id. In Harris, citing to Laveroni and Coleman, the First District aligned itself with the Fourth and Fifth Districts. Harris, 989 So.2d at 1215. The Second District has reached the opposite conclusion on similar facts. According to the Second District, in Matheson, 870 So.2d at 14, the fact that a dog has been trained and certified, standing alone, is insufficient to give officers probable cause to search based on the dog's alert. The Second District reasoned that [a]n officer who knows only that his dog is trained and certified, and who has no other information, at most can only suspect that a search based on the dog's alert will yield contraband. Of course, mere suspicion cannot justify a search. Id. at 13. Thus, the Second District concluded that the most telling indicator of what the dog's behavior means is the dog's past performance in the field. Id. at 15. The Second District also discussed the issue of residual odors: [I]n this case Razor's trainer acknowledged the tendency of narcotics detection dogs to alert on the residual odors of drugs that are no longer present. This underscores one of three central reasons why the fact that a dog has been trained, standing alone, is not enough to give an officer probable cause to search based on the dog's alert. Razor's trainer acknowledged that a trained dog, doing what he has been conditioned to do, imparts to the officer merely that he detects the odor of contraband. To be sure, as the trainer maintained, this may not be a false alert when assessing the success of the dog's conditioning. But for Fourth Amendment purposes it is neither false nor positive. The presence of a drug's odor at an intensity detectable by the dog, but not by the officer, does not mean that the drug itself is present. Id. at 13. The Second District then enunciated concerns with relying solely on evidence that the dog was trained or conditioned to respond in particular ways to particular stimuli: Although we commonly refer to the training of dogs, manifestly they are not trained in the sense that human beings may be trained. It is not a process of imparting knowledge and skills that dogs want or need. However much we dog lovers may tend to anthropomorphize their behavior, the fact is that dogs are not motivated to acquire skills that will assist them in their chosen profession of detecting contraband. Rather, dogs are conditioned, that is, they are induced to respond in particular ways to particular stimuli. For law enforcement purposes, the ideal conditioning would yield a dog who always responds to specified stimuli in a consistent and recognizable way, yet never responds in that manner absent the stimuli. But this does not happen. While dogs are not motivated in ways that humans are, neither can they be calibrated to achieve mechanically consistent results. Id. at 13-14. In this regard, the Second District highlighted that conditioning and certification programs vary widely in their methods, elements, and tolerances of failure. Id. at 14. The Second District then contrasted the highly rigorous training and certification program of the United States Customs Service to the training in Matheson, where the dog and handler had undergone only one initial thirty-day certification program and one week-long annual recertification. See id. Finally, the Second District noted that dogs themselves vary in their abilities to accept, retain, or abide by their conditioning in widely varying environments. Id. In rejecting the proposition that evidence of training and certification alone is sufficient to give probable cause to search based on the dog's alert, the Second District held that multiple factors should be considered, including the exact training received, the criteria for selecting the dogs in the program, the standards the dog was required to meet to successfully complete the training program, and the track record of the dog in the field, with an emphasis on the number of mistakes the dog has made. See id. at 14-15 (quoting State v. Foster, 390 So.2d 469, 470 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)). In Gibson, 968 So.2d at 631, the Second District held that the State had failed to establish that the drug-detection dog's alert provided probable cause for the search. The Second District, citing Matheson, reiterated that [t]o demonstrate that an alert by a narcotics detection dog is sufficiently reliable to furnish probable cause to search, the State must introduce evidence of the dog's `track record' or performance history. Id. (citing Matheson, 870 So.2d at 14). In that case, the dog's handler had testified that the dog was certified and had completed 400 hours of training. Id. at 631-32. However, the State failed to elicit any testimony from him regarding the dog's track record in the field; although the officer admitted that drugs are not always found when the dog alerts, ... he could not quantify the percentage of false alerts. Id. at 632. The Second District concluded that, under Matheson, the officer's testimony was inadequate to establish the dog's reliability. Id. As explained in our analysis below, we agree with the Second District's bottom-line conclusion that the State cannot establish probable cause by introducing evidence only that the dog was trained and certified. We disapprove of the conclusions of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Districts that the State can meet its burden of establishing probable cause by presenting evidence that the dog is trained and certified to detect illegal drugs and then shifting the burden to the defendant to counter this evidence.