Florida Court Limits Searches Based on Drug Dogs

In a landmark ruling, a Florida appeals court determined that an alert from a drug-sniffing dog cannot justify a police search of a vehicle if the dog cannot distinguish between legal and illegal marijuana. This decision, made by the 5th District Court of Appeal, arose from a 2020 traffic stop involving a Lyft car in Groveland, where a police officer called in a dog named Polo, who alerted to drugs. The search uncovered marijuana, crack cocaine, ecstasy, and methamphetamine, leading to the arrest of passenger Stephon Ford. Ford argued that the dog's inability to differentiate between medical and illegal pot invalidated the probable cause for the search, a stance the appeals court upheld. Chief Judge James Edwards noted that the legality of the substances Polo detected was not clear-cut, thus negating the justification for a warrantless search. This ruling could complicate future vehicle searches by police in Florida.