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School Search Issues (cont)

Use of Drug-Sniffing Dogs (cont)

For example:

• Walking a drug-sniffing dog around a student’s car in a school parking lot while the student is in class is permissible.
   

• However, detaining that same student in the school parking lot, without reasonable suspicion, while a drug-sniffing dog walks around the student’s car is not permissible. 
   

• The detention of the student without reasonable suspicion -- even briefly – raises constitutional issues if the detention is for the purpose of facilitating a "canine sniff" or actual search.

An alert by a trained drug-sniffing dog that drugs are present in a particular location provides school officials and law enforcement officers alike with probable cause to conduct a search of the person or place to which the dog alerted.

As a general rule, a school official or any law enforcement officer may conduct a reasonable search of a student or a student’s property, including a motor vehicle, on school grounds based upon an alert by a drug-sniffing dog without first obtaining a search warrant.

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