RULING WON'T STOP DOG SEARCHES

"What we are doing is not a random search."

The Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled police cannot use
scent-tracking dogs for random searches, but local law enforcement say
it will have little effect on the community.

The ruling will stop police from using sniffer dogs to do random
searches for illegal drugs, citing the right to privacy as the reason,
but Sgt. Ken Marchand says Lloydminster police only use the dogs to
search for suspects or under the premise of a search warrant.

"Most of the time they are used for scent-tracking for an armed
robbery, in a pursuit or a break and enter in progress," he said.

"The bulk of our use of the police dog has been for tracking suspects
and nothing will change with that . as far as drug detection, rarely,"
said Marchand "If we are doing the search warrant we will use the dog,
but again, if we are in the premise under the cover of a search
warrant, this really doesn't apply."

"This is basically random stops . when we are doing a search warrant
of a residence, of course, a dog and its scent is a valuable asset and
that's authorized under the premise of the search warrant so we have
the authority to use the dog and whatever the dog finds that a team of
police officers can't is still fair game for the court," he said.

The Lloydminster RCMP use the scent-tracking dog from North Battleford
or St. Paul, as needed.

While the sniffer dogs have been used to search for illegal drugs on
school property, Michael Diachuk, director of education for the
Lloydminster Public School Division says they do not conduct random
searches.

"When we became engaged with the local RCMP and the dog handler, one
of the things that he warned us right from the get-go, if we were
intending upon doing random searches in our organization or schools,
that he wasn't interested," said Diachuk, adding random searches are
seen as an infringement on the rights of students.

"You get hung up spending a lot of time in the courts and wasting
time," he said.

Instead, the LPSD makes records of the students who have been
suspended, whether for drugs or alcohol and uses that information to
substantiate the searches.

"What we do, in fact, is that we look at the frequency of the
infractions we are catching students," said Diachuk. "If we feel at
any point in time that we see our numbers warranting that we have the
need for the police dog service to come in and do search of our
schools and they are available at that time, then we will proceed,
because, in fact, what we are doing is not a random search."

If students are found in the possession of an illegal substance, they
receive a suspension, which Diachuk says is sometimes adjusted
accordingly if they agree to visit one of the counselors at the Slim
Thorpe Centre.

"Rather than saying we are just going to punish you, we are saying
well, we would like to help you out and perhaps make you aware of
perhaps what some of the consequences are," he said. "It's a starting
step to addressing substance abuse as opposed to simply punishing
people and letting them stay out of school."