Discuss what a trained dog can use scent evidence to perform

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A trained dog can legally do the following:
- Follow the trail of a suspect from the crime scene, where objects dropped might be found, footprints or tire tracks discovered, or witnesses found who may have seen the fleeing suspect.
- Identify a suspect in a "scent" lineup. In the 2006 case of Risher v. State, a trained bloodhound used a "scent pad" from a brick of cocaine discarded by the driver of a car during a police chase to identify the driver in a scent lineup as the person who had touched the cocaine. Evidence showed that the dog had participated in seventy-four scent lineups and had identified the person whose scent was on a scent pad in sixty-three cases. The dog had never made a false identification.
- Place a suspect at or near the scene of the crime.
- Establish probable cause to make an arrest or obtain a search warrant. In the 2004 case of Fitzgerald v. State,16 the Maryland Supreme Court held that an alert outside a defendant's apartment by a dog trained to sniff marijuana was sufficient probable cause to obtain a search warrant.
- Locate a missing person, who might be a hostage or dead. Specially trained "cadaver" dogs can be used to find a body or confirm that a body was once at a particular location. In the 2007 case of Trejos v. State, evidence that two trained cadaver dogs alerted to a spot where a body of a murder victim that had never been found but had been buried and later moved was admitted to corroborate other evidence that the defendant had murdered the victim.