‘False positives’ suggest police exploit canines to justify searches

Ex-cop: Police 'using dogs to trample our rights as citizens'

A study of "false positives" involving drug-sniffing police dogs suggests some police forces may be using canines to do an end-run around constitutional protections against search and seizure, and may be profiling racial minorities in the process.

A survey of primarily suburban police departments in Illinois, carried out by the Chicago Tribune, found that 56 percent of all police searches triggered by a drug-sniffing dog turned nothing up.

But, perhaps tellingly, that number jumped to 73 percent when the search involved a Latino subject -- meaning that nearly three-quarters of all dog alerts on Latinos turned up no contraband. The study covered a two-year period from 2007 to 2009.

Police spokespeople say the numbers are no surprise, because dogs' noses can sniff the residue of drugs on a person or in a vehicle long after the drugs have been removed............