STATE POLICE WORK TO DISPEL MYTH INVOLVING DRUGS, RENTAL VEHICLES

As state police stood near two rows of rental cars, they waited for an
anxious drug-sniffing canine to prove what they already knew.

Although drug traffickers commonly use rental vehicles to move drugs from
place to place, it's not so prevalent that a drug dog will alert on any
rental lot in any city.

That recently circulated statement caused some concern for state police who
feared it might effect future drug cases, said Sgt. Don Campbell.

"I don't want a jury or the general public who (has) ever rented a car to
think a canine is going to alert on any car in the lot," he said. "The
problem we don't want to run into is anyone thinking a canine is going to
alert just because it's a rental car."

Belief in such a statement might eventually result in doubt being cast
during the prosecution of solid drug cases, Campbell said.

"(Attorneys) could just dwell on that and try to get a seed of doubt
planted in the jury's minds ... That's why it's important we do this."

To help illustrate the point, Campbell and a state police K-9 team recently
checked numerous vehicles at two local rental car companies with the
owners' permission.

Three-year-old Arrak and his handler searched more than 20 rental vehicles
and came up empty-handed. The only time the dog alerted to the scent of
narcotics is when police hid a drug-scented cotton ball on a vehicle.

"The only two vehicles the dog alerted on were the ones that were baited
and these cars are rented and go out everywhere," Campbell said pointing at
licence plates from as far away as New York.

Campbell said he hoped the recent test also quells any concerns the public
might have about renting vehicles.

"I don't want them thinking that they're going to get arrested if they get
stopped and searched while in a rental car."

Randy Scoggin, owner of Avis rental car agency on Monkhouse Drive that
police searched, said he was aware of the statement, but that it hasn't
seemed to have affected business. "We haven't had a drop in sales."

In the years he's been in the rental car business, Scoggin said he's
learned to identify customers who are more than likely wanting to rent a
vehicle for illegal purposes.

"Drug traffickers have set patterns of what they do," he said. "Once you've
been in this business long enough, you can tell."

It sends up red flags when the same customer rents a vehicle several times
a month, around the same time or when the odometer shows pretty much the
same number of miles were traveled by that customer each time it was
rented, Scoggin said.

"In the past, we've been able to track something like that and we can call
the drug task force," he said.

But those types of customers aren't an everyday occurrence by any means,
Scoggin said.

"Ninety percent of the people who rent our vehicles are the commercial
types who fly in and then rent our cars for business."