If he is called to the stand to testify, someone as impulsive as Nero can dedicate a bark to the imposing justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. And let everyone interpret it in their own way.
Nero is a Malinois, a Belgian shepherd dog, described as short-haired (light brown, reddish or grey, with black tones at the tips), medium in size and square in appearance, often confused with the German Shepherd. According to the experts, it is a very intelligent and obedient animal. However, this time it seems that he was left hard by emotions during the fulfillment of work obligations.
During the work of what is called a K-9, that is, the practice of working as a police dog, Nero has gotten into trouble. Maybe he doesn't understand anything, however smart he is, because he didn't do anything more than what he's supposed to do. This began in 2019, when he put his paws on the door of a vehicle that had been ordered to stop by uniformed colleagues after the driver erratically jumped three lanes.
It happened in Mountain Home, in the state of Idaho. The Malinois applied what he had learned in training and activated his olfactory skills when faced with a pill jar and a plastic bag containing residue of methamphetamine, one of the deadliest illegal substances in the US today, along with the fentanyl, causing an epidemic of fatal overdoses.
Their initiative provided the evidence to obtain a warrant to search the motel room where the driver, Kirby Dorff, was staying, where they found more evidence. They charged the detainee with a serious crime of drug possession. A police success? The point is that Nero's paws on the door and his sketch inside the car to have a better olfactory position have opened an issue that has reached the highest judicial authority in the country. If it accepts the summary, the Supreme Court will have to decide whether the fact that the dog touched the car violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits warrantless searches.
The Idaho Supreme Court previously ruled that Nero's warrant amounted to a warrantless search warrant. The judges overturned Dorff's first-instance conviction due to a procedural error. The K-9 violated the driver's constitutional rights, they noted. Nero, with the uniformed guide, circled the vehicle twice. The second time, the animal jumped on the car several times, which was recorded in the police recording.
The state court noted that the dog had complete freedom to sniff the air around the vehicle, but that did not give it permission to try to get inside without a judge's order. In the resolution, they compared the situations between a dog that rubs its tail on the bumper when passing by and another in which, "without privilege or consent", it approaches the car to jump on the roof, sit on the hood or lean against the window or door.
There is a disparity of criteria in the Supreme Court. In 2013, he ruled that Miami-Dade County police violated the Fourth Amendment when they chased a K-9 around the home of a suspected marijuana grower. In another summary the same year, magistrates ruled by a majority that it was proper for uniformed officers to use a dog to sniff out a truck during a routine traffic stop. But, since then, four members of the highest court have been replaced.
Experts advocated for the need for a resolution, as these are relevant cases for understanding the limits of police investigation under the Fourth Amendment. For Don Slavik, executive director of the American Police Canine Association, K-9s stand on their hind legs while putting their front legs on the car to gain balance when sniffing. Once they detect a scent, Slavik pointed out to USA Today, the animal always gets as close as it can to the scent.
So Nero, who followed his instincts, acted more like a dog than a policeman.
