The day and the hour are a closely guarded secret—until Casey simply appears out of the blue, and seemingly out of place on school grounds.
Once she enters a school building, the daily bustle comes to a halt. The school is put on lockdown and students are kept in their classrooms. All they can do now is wait for Casey, the drug-sniffing dog, to finish her work. Sometimes, Casey gives the all clear and what started out as a typical day stays that way. Other times, Casey “alerts” her attending officer with a scratch and a bark, perhaps on a student’s locker or car, and someone’s day takes a turn for the worse.
Curious about the process behind random drug scans in Harford County Public Schools, I accepted an invitation from HCPS to tag along on a scan one day this spring. I got some advance notice as to the day and an early morning text message with the place and time: North Harford High School, 8:00 a.m.
I drove to the school and waited for Casey to roll up in her specialized police van, driven by her handler from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office. In the school’s main office, I met with a group including Bob Benedetto, chief of security for HCPS and Craig Thompson, the school’s resource officer. Shortly thereafter, Casey got down to business.
We followed along as Casey snuffled her way through the school. Trained to alert officers to the presence of a variety of controlled dangerous substances ,and with nose enough to sniff out quantities as small as seeds and as nebulous as residual smoke, Casey made fairly quick work of students’ lockers and cars. She searched up and down, sometimes standing on her hind legs for a better whiff, and needing only an occasional prod to stay on task –discipline you had to admire. I had mixed feelings about a seeing her give an alert; the reporter in me wanted to see what Casey would do, but the parent in me hoped she wouldn’t have cause to do it that day.
Harford County Public Schools conducts random drug scans at least once a year inside every middle school and twice a year at each high school, once inside and once outside. Additional scans are also conducted at the request of the principal. While they have been subjected to court challenges, random drug scans in schools are legal in the U.S. and have been in use in county schools since 1998. Such scans have been legally differentiated from searches which, according to Benedetto, are also allowed under Maryland law when they are based on a reasonable suspicion that a violation of law or school policy is occurring, or that evidence of a violation will be found in the search. The full HCPS policy on the use of drug detecting dogs can be found here: http://www.hcps.org/BOE/PoliciesProcedures/docs/Safety_and_Security/0006-000%20Use%20of%20Drug%20Detecting%20Dogs%20in%20Secondary%20Schools.pdf
When a drug-sniffing dog alerts in a county school, the student is pulled from class, the dog is removed from the area, and the suspected locker or car is searched. If the alert is given on a locker, an administrator conducts the search of school property; if the alert is on a vehicle, police conduct the search, with the school’s resource officer overseeing all investigations. Parents are notified regardless of the findings.
If a controlled dangerous substance, such as marijuana, heroin or cocaine, is found, the student is subject to both school discipline and police action, including possible arrest. As with North Harford High School, most area schools fall under the jurisdiction of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office. But searches of schools inside the municipalities of Bel Air, Aberdeen and Havre de Grace are handled by their respective police departments, each with their own version of Casey.
In the end, there were no alerts that day at North Harford. But that didn’t stop Casey from making her presence known. Just before we left the building, she let out a few sharp barks, as if to say, “I’ll be back.”
Below are the results of the drug searches in HCPS for the 2010-11 school year:
Once a year isn’t enough. The school police should have their own dog dedicated just to their unit.
I agree that once a year for an inside dog search is not enough. Students are smart enough to know when the inside search of their school has been done. After that those that might be inclined to bring something illegal to school may feel more secure in doing so. The dog scan report supplied by the school system also failed to identify which schools were subjected to additional searches at the request of the principal. This would be valuable information for the public to know as it would show what principals thought there might be a problem in their school and which may be skirting the issue by not requesting additional searches. It might be an interesting comparison to cross reference juvenile arrest statistics for drug violations to the dog scan findings reported by the school system.
it is amazing how well trained these dogs are, and when these demonstrations are given I urge everyone to attend. the reason not every school security person has a dog is because they are purchased from other countries and the training is extensive, in short, very expensive. let me xhare the rest of the story. if a substance is found the police are called first, and the child is interrogated by school officials and police.then thePp parent is called with this unimaginable choice: Do you want to come to the school to witness your child being handcuffed and taken into custody, or do you want to just meet at the station? It’s good Ms. Mumby didn’t have to witness that, would have ruined her day. For a parent it is devastating.
I’m not very impressed with the alerts to finds ratio. Are you sure this dog is trained correctly? In my opinion, this dog is a failure…
The dogs could be smelling residue on clothing or books in the locker. I think it’s kind of funny that you consider the dog a failure because no actual drugs were found. That should make you happy to know it isn’t in the school.
No, you are missing the point. If a dog give off an alert for presence of contraband and no contraband is found then this is a failure of the dog’s detection skills. Commonly known as a false positive, this method is obviously not fool proof. There was no proof of residue being detected. I am glad nothing was found, but I am disappointed that this dog is giving an enormously large number of false positive dog sniffs. This whole article could be used as a defense in court to disallow dog sniffs as probable cause for anything. 41 alerts and only 7 actual finds of contraband is actually a percentage like 17% effectiveness. This dog has sniffer problems or is just not good at what it does…….
Dogs have a very keen sense of smell. Just because a dog alerts and there is no contraband found doesn’t mean he gave a false positive. Dogs can sniff out the slightest of residue. And these dogs don’t signal on command. When training, these dogs alert to training kits that that are randomly placed in the training area. When the k9 sniffs the device out, they are rewarded with positive reinforcement. It’s usually a toy of some sort. Not finding anything doesn’t necassarily mean the dog is a failure
Nice article. I learned a few things about what is taking place in the schools. Although it is a sign of the times and random searches have become necessary, I do commend the schools and Sheriff’s office for their efforts in the fight against illegal drugs. Thanks for the article.
If she wanted to see an alert, the handler could have easily demonstrated it to her with a subtle flick of their wrist or some other queue that the dog has been trained for as well.
Let’s hover at this locker, Principle give officer a nod, Officer gives dog a signal, Justification for opening the locker is on the table. The report above noted a weapon found. Was it a gun or a knife. If it was a knife, that’s some dog! I want my children safe but this is law enforcement theater. Let the comments begin that attack me personally and what my lifestyle must be. You’re wrong and anyway, it doesn’t matter. This is a constitutional infringement and it’s UNPATRIOTIC not to voice an opposition. Dogs like Casey have many great roles in law enforcement. I applaud them and their handlers for their service. This particular use comes at too great a cost to out civil liberties.
I have no opposition, so you are calling me unpatriotic. Which ‘civil liberty’ is being violated? Do you think that there is a right to privacy in school lockers? Be more specific.
If you just want to get into the lockers of students, that’s separate matter but to use the dogs as probable cause is, as I stated, theater. Any handler can tell you that they can make the dog alert at whim. This does not mean that I call into question the integrity of all handlers rather that the practice is indeed open to manipulation. By the way, has Casey been trained to detect cigarettes, alcohol, and weapons? If not, you can add that to the list of convenient alerts.
Why would a handler falsely cause a dog to alert on something? Do you really think police want to go through some kid’s stinky locker if there aren’t drugs in it? Lol wow.
If “we all know” that THIS is the kid that is the school stoner I think they would check the cup pocket in his jock strap if they could possibly make an example of him.
Yes, I believe that if police think that a student is dirty, that they would use any technique possible to search this student’s locker. Especially in Harford County, where integrity of the police has been in question all over our county, for quite some time now. Once again, this dog is a failure…….
@Curious: If you subtract out AHS, BHS and HHS as the article states, the dog checked just under 5000 lockers and 156 cars (I think my math is right). You feel that 7 finds on 41 alerts in over 5100 cases is a failure whereas I suspect the 34 misses were simply hits on the residual smell on clothing after a quick joint on the way to school (I was young once too, you know). Just because it isn’t there doesn’t mean the pooch can’t still smell it. The lockers are not a personal sanctuary. If you’re stupid enough to bring it in you deserve to be caught.
You are just plain wrong and missing the point. Doing math to determine how many lockers were sniffed has absolutely no relevance to the fact that out of 41 alerts only 7 instances of contraband were found. I’m not saying that the Dog Sniff program should not be used in our schools, I’m saying that this particular dog is not good at its job. Please reread my comments and respond intellectually to what I’m saying. Don’t throw out a bunch of numbers that mean absolutely nothing and do nothing but cloud the situation. For heaven sakes, you are trying to rewrite my statements to try and advance your own agenda, the point is that this dog is a failure and I don’t think its too much to ask that next time a dog with a more credible record can be brought it.
@Curious: No, I don’t think I have missed the point and no, I don’t have an agenda. I’m simply not looking at two numbers in a vacuum. If the dog had checked 100 lockers and alerted on 41 and been wrong 34 times I’d say the dog is worthless. You’re assuming that the 34 misses are failures and there was no reason for the dog to alert, whereas I understand that the animal can detect odors on clothing long after the event. Gee, kind of like how they can sniff a piece of clothing and then track someone even though they haven’t had the clothing on for hours. Do you think they showed up at 8am accidentally or because odors would still be fresh? The numbers are important because what’s more likely… 34 out of 100 were smoking pot on the way to school or 34 out of 5000? These may indeed have been misses but they may also have been as innocent as picking up second hand smoke. I hope I’ve answered you intellectually.
http://www.nswccl.org.au/docs/pdf/sniffer%20dogs%20submission.pdf
Please read page 4 of this report everyone. The Discussion Paper notes that drug detection dogs have a 27% ‘success rate’ in identifying people in possession of prohibited drugs.1 In other words, 73% of people identified by the dogs are not in possession of prohibited drugs at all.
Hey JUST A PARENT, you put an awful lot of faith in those dogs. Maybe once you get searched a few times for absolutely no reason you’ll see the other side of the issue. I doubt it tho, your blinders are definately firmly fastened to your head or you are probably a police officer.
@Dogtrainer, As I have stated before, the dog is probably alerting to something that the kids clothing was exposed to earlier… innocently or not. A dog’s sense of smell is orders of magnitude beyond ours and they are capable of following scents that are hours, even days old. Do you deny this? The only point I was trying to make is that if the dog alerted 41 times, that also means he DIDN’T alert over 4900 times… No one can say there was NO reason for him to alert since we can’t begin to approach his olfactory capabilities – which is the same for the New South Wales report. Again, just because it isn’t there doesn’t mean it never was and there is no way you or I can know. I am not in law enforcement and no, I will not criticize you or call you names simply because we disagree.
The police aren’t needed all the principal needs is a belief that there might be drugs in the locker. NJ v TLO a syudent has no expectation of privacy in a locker at school.
I never stated that there is an expectation of privacy in a school locker! I am simply stating that this dog is a failure at what it does and should be replaced with one that actually works. Enough is enough, are you people making these comments from the planet earth or is it you just don’t understand the english language! I’m done with this, the dog is a complete embarrassment to the Harford County Sheriff’s Department and should be retrained. What a bunch of fargin iceholes……….
First the school system owns the lockers not the students. The students get to use them. Only the school and the student has the combination(which the student usually give out). Don’t act like it is a huge infringement of rights.
These are minors, and they have a right to an education. Schools are drug free zones. I get tired of people making excuses, when people do stupid things. Like bring drugs to school.
Agreed, if you bring it to school you should be caught!
I agree with the CURIOUS one, the statistics plainly show that this dog is giving false positive alerts. If you were to use this dog on traffic drug scans with this kind of stats, the police would probably discontinue use of this dog because of all the false positive alerts. Police would probably get sued for harassment and other crazy claims. Another point of view is this, what about the reputation of the student that was the victim of this dog’s inability to perform its job? Now the teachers and principals will think this student is a pot head or something, just because this dog is giving false positives. If I were to spray a common pet training fluid on a locker the dog would go crazy at a locker. If I own a dog in heat, the dog will go crazy at this locker. You have to realize that a dog is just as prone to mistakes as are humans, its just that the humans making the mistakes won’t come forward and say they are sorry because thay just can’t admit that they might be wrong. A dog doesn’t care if it is wrong, it is still gonna get fed!
Sounds like curious and belairrealist were pinched from a k-9 scan. someone get them a tissue
I fail to see where anywhere in my comments or CURIOUS’ comments give you the impression that I or he have been victims of a dog scan. He stated that the facts are shown that this dog is giving false positive results and that he did not think this dog’s abilities are up to par. I just agreed with him because the article plainly gives statistics that this dog’s abilities are questionable due to false positive alerts. So you are saying that anyone that speaks the facts that this dog is a failure, must have been arrested due to a dog sniff? I think you are plainly mistaken and should think before you open your mouth again. Too much unrealistic crap comes out of your mouth for you to ever be taken seriously………
I hope all your sons and daughters find themselves bunked up with thiefs and perverts and real drug dealers!!!! It will serve you right for puttting sanctimonious hipocrites in charge of the courts. Maybe when your savings are being spent on fines and sponge like lawyers. Maybe when you wake up and realize in your stupor that you have no rights, no recourse that doesn’t funnel money into the gov. coffers. Just maybe then you’ll understand whats going on?…but I doubt it!….Using beautiful animals to do your pig work, sucks, everyone knows its seriously flawed and only increases the possibility of illegal searches. Harford Co. is the most assbackwards, corrupt, politically incorrect sore hole I ever lived in, and its not made that way by the bad guys. The county government here has enough of them to go around!…The War on Drugs, what a joke…lol… doesnt anyone see that our own government will soon be our worst nitemare. They wont be satisfied until they know where ker and blunk are, and what color. They will take “ALL” your rights away and you wont even notice the transition. It will start with your puppet county police force, “the legal gang with guns”, and when things get out-a-hand, they’ll send in the others. You know what that means! You are nothing but sheep being led to the slaughter and it starts by allowing our all knowing government to get away with harassing our children in school, what da hell is wrong with you.? We used to be a great nation and we lasted this long because of a good and just and right government but I dare say those days are long gone. I think soon you will either be wearing dresses bowing down to allah or sipping tea from ah chink bow singing mal mal in chinamerica…lol, A interesting bit of info…when I was a guest of the harford co. gov. I was in with not one, not two, but three pastors sons of churchs right here in harford co. You know, good people? All three in for drugs, possession and distribution. Just goes to show ya how well the drug policies of our county and nation work?…Our leaders are destroying freedom with defiant malice. They’re gettin richer and we pay for it all. You dont have to sacrafice your children anymore, the gov. will do that for ya.
Dissenter, I don’t know what caused your rant, but I think if you just stay out of jail for a while your attitude may change. Back to the subject at hand, was the dog trained to detect tobacco? If not, the dog’s detection skills have to be questioned as the lockers that had the tobacco in them obviously did not have any CDS as the report shows. Get a new dog, this one is obviously not performing well.