Dog-Sniff Searches and the Human Body, What’s a Search and What’s Legal?

From the DA’s Desk: Dog-Sniff Searches and the Human Body  
By Robert Phillips  
Deputy District Attorney (ret.) 

An interesting topic for which there is actually very little case law is dog-sniff searches as they relate to sniffing one’s person.  

There is plenty of case law out there to the effect that using a police canine to sniff a lawfully stopped vehicle is not a search, given the lack of any privacy expectations in the air surrounding our vehicles. (Illinois v. Caballes (2005) 543 U.S. 405). Courts have also held that it’s lawful to detain a person’s luggage (with a reasonable suspicion) and have a police dog sniff it despite the lack of probable cause or a warrant. That’s because such a luggage sniff is not a “search,” given a similar logic of having no expectation of privacy in the air around one’s luggage. (United States v. Place (1983) 462 U.S. 696.)  

In light of these cases, it might come as a surprise to you that the weight of authority, what little there is of it, for a police dog sniffing one’s person — as opposed to a vehicle or luggage — holds to the ....