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To: South40
They don't, but when the evidence of the crime is emanating out onto the public thoroughfare, and it can be detected, well then...

Take for example the smell of raw weed. (And let's leave aside, for the moment, the argument over whether it should be legalized or not.) I have no trouble smelling any appreciable quantity of that and if I am in a place where any Joe has a right to be, e.g. on the sidewalk, then that becomes part of PC to initiate a search if I can localize the source and articulate the facts. Maybe the search is with a warrant, maybe without if it meets the court defined guidelines and is necessary. (I'd never conduct a search without a warrant just because I could. That gives the defense one more reason to raise challenges and doubts over your justification due to 'exigent circumstances' and maybe get a righteous case tossed out.

Let's take a less benign example, like the smell of gasoline on the person of someone hightailing it away from an arson scene, or the stench of a rotting corpse in the trunk of the car. I've dealt with both. In both cases, I was where I had a right to be, where any citizen has a right to be. In both cases the perp brought the evidence of the crime out into the open, in a public place, where I could detect it. Their rights remained intact, and I got my evidence and secured convictions.

75 posted on 03/26/2013 2:28:11 PM PDT by SargeK
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To: SargeK

We both know that dogs have searched citizens’ vehicles w/o the presence of the odor of raw weed. Many times police have used dogs to search citizens’ cars based on “suspicion” and nothing more.


76 posted on 03/26/2013 2:32:22 PM PDT by South40 (I Love The "New & Improved" Free Republic!)
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