Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

K-9 Officer

Person gets pulled over for speeding. Officer runs licence, writes ticket, and asks to search. person says no. Officer calls for K-9 unit and everyone waits. K-9 arrives and begins to search. My question: The K-9 retires with a pension, if someone kills him they are tried for murdering an officer. So, why is this officer searching without a warrant when a request to search has already been denied?


Asked on 2/01/08, 3:15 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Brent Rose The Orsini & Rose Law Firm

Re: K-9 Officer

As long as the wait is not for an unreasonable length of time--no more than, say, 30 minutes or so--police officers are allowed to call in k-9 units to allow the dogs to do the search.

There are many bases for warrantless searches. One is permission, which obviously was not given in this case. Another is the "alert" of a k-9 which smells drugs. Whether you consider it fair or not, the Supreme Court has given police officers great powers to conduct searches of cars, even where permission to search the car has been denied by the driver or owner.

I don't know what the heck your comment means about murdering an officer.

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Answered on 2/02/08, 2:31 pm


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