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UNITED STATES V. COLLIER, 2024 WL 4097352 (8th Cir. 2024)
Tommy Collier, a Mississippi resident, was driving a car through Lonoke County, Arkansas. His vehicle had Utah plates and had been rented in Las Vegas, Nevada. State Police Corporal Travis May noticed Collier drift into the shoulder, and he executed a traffic stop. When Corporal May walked up to Collier’s car, he noticed Collier’s shaking hands and a messy interior. Collier provided an unusual travel itinerary, saying he was driving from Mississippi to Little Rock, Arkansas, to shop for tires. That aroused Corporal May’s suspicion.
Corporal May asked Collier for consent to search the car and Collier denied consent. May called for a drug detector dog, and Sergeant Blackerby arrived about four minutes later with his police service dog Raptor. Raptor gave a positive final response to the odor of controlled substances. The two troopers searched Collier’s car and found a small amount of marijuana and ten bundles of white powder, which was later confirmed to be 10.08 kilograms of cocaine. Corporal May arrested Collier and he was later indicted for unlawful possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. A jury found Collier guilty.
Collier appealed, attacking Raptor’s reliability as a drug detection dog and the admission of expert testimony. The prosecution provided evidence of a 320-hour basic police service dog training course successfully completed by Raptor and his handler. Training and field performance records showed “Raptor’s accuracy rate was 97 percent.” The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has previously held “absent contradictory circumstances, a trained dog’s alert will establish probable cause when the dog’s previous in-field accuracy rate exceeds 50 percent.” The United States Supreme Court has held “evidence of a dog’s satisfactory performance in a certification or training program can itself provide sufficient reason to trust his alert” (Florida v. Harris, 568 U.S. 237 (2013)).
Collier also contested the admission of expert testimony from the police service dog coordinator for the Arkansas State Police. Collier based his challenge on allegations that the expert was “unaware that police dog training originated in the German state of Northrine-Westfalia.” (Though the German Shepherd breed’s history includes contributions from German Schutzhund training, it is a bit of a stretch to claim all police service dog training originated in Westfalia).
Moreover, the coordinator had trouble pronouncing “Polizeispurhundprüfung,” or more accurately, “Polizei Spurhund Prüfung.” The term refers to testing a dog’s tracking ability and has little to do with Collier’s case.
The court faulted Collier for relying on “ignorance of certain obscure facts.” One could almost hear the judges thinking, “Really? That’s the best you’ve got? The guy can’t speak German?” I’ve worked with and around police service dogs, handlers, trainers and academics for years. Most wouldn’t have a clue how to pronounce some of the German words. I’m not sure German police officers can do it!
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