Justices Hear Case on Drug-Detection Dogs

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High Court Is Asked to Decide on Legality of Such Searches During Traffic Stops

By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 11, 2004; Page A09

Nothing seemed unusual on the afternoon six years ago when Illinois state trooper Daniel Gillette pulled Roy Caballes over for driving six miles per hour faster than the posted speed limit of 65.

Gillette indicated he would let Caballes off with a warning. But as Gillette went through some paperwork, a second trooper arrived with a drug-detection dog and began to stroll around Caballes's car.

The dog reacted to the scent of drugs in the trunk, and the troopers opened it to find a shipment of marijuana. Caballes was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case. To be decided is whether using a drug-detection dog on a car pulled over for a traffic offense is an invasion of privacy for which police need a specific justification, or merely an aspect of modern law enforcement no more intrusive than the sniffer dogs that routinely patrol airports and bus stations.