APPEALS COURT QUESTIONS POLICE DOG'S QUALIFICATIONS

Car Search) Defendant Says Canine Inadequately Trained To Do His Job

An injury had kept K-9 officer Oso from completing an eight-week
narcotics certification course, but his law enforcement partners
insist he had the skills to perform his job.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals isn't so sure.

The court has ordered a federal judge in Salt Lake City to review
whether Oso was qualified to sniff out evidence on the night he helped
find a handgun and drug paraphernalia in a Utah man's car. Police say
Oso had 10 weeks of training with his handler, although he hadn't
completed certification.

The Denver-based court said Tuesday police might be able to establish
the dog was reliable through presenting evidence other than the
certification course.

The ruling came in the case of William Vincent Clarkson. According to
the appeals court opinion, Clarkson was spotted by South Salt Lake
police driving away from a suspected drug house on Sept. 26, 2006.
After a computer check showed the registration for the Cadillac he was
driving had expired, an officer pulled Clarkson over.

A second officer came to the scene with Oso, who alerted to the front
passenger-side door and, once inside the car, to the front seats.
Police say they found a Ruger semiautomatic handgun and a glass pipe
in a fanny pack on the driver's seat. No drugs were found.

Clarkson, who was charged with illegal possession of a firearm by a
felon, asked U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball to throw out the
evidence. He argued Oso was not qualified to detect narcotics and,
therefore, police lacked probable cause to search after the German
Shepherd indicated he had found something.

Kimball denied the request, ruling it was reasonable for the first
officer to search because he didn't know Oso, donated to the
department in the spring of 2006, might not be qualified as a
narcotics dog.

But in overturning Kimball, the 10th Circuit said applying a
good-faith exception in these types of circumstances "would minimize
the motivation for police officers to ensure a dog is actually trained
or reliable before deploying it."