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E.D.Tenn.: Use of drug dog two minutes into stop was not unreasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Traffic stop was with a factual basis, but the officer apparently and legally abandoned it to investigate drugs. Using a drug dog within a couple of minutes of the stop was not unreasonable. United States v. Ramsey, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116195 (E.D. Tenn. November 9, 2009)*: Defendant does not dispute that only a few minutes elapsed between the stop and the alert by Red. Defendant also appears to concede the stop was not prolonged in order to deploy Red by admitting his argument does not turn on the length of the stop [Doc. 18 at 3]. That Red was deployed within a few minutes of the stop is not determinative of whether the detention was constitutional. Bell, 555 F.3d at 539. The mere two-minute lapse of time between the stop and the deployment of Red, however, certainly bolsters the undisputed video evidence that Officer Curvin had not completed all traffic enforcement acts at the time of the deployment and alert...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 18, 2009 (boomark / email).