Are drug dog searches at a home illegal?

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - The U.S. Supreme Court could soon take up an interesting case involving the legal use of K-9 drug sniffing dogs.

If the high court takes this issue of Florida vs. Jardines, it could decide whether it's constitutional for a dog to sniff outside a house so police officers can obtain a search warrant.

Law enforcement agencies nationwide are keeping an eye on this because the ruling could impact how investigators do business.

This case involves an issue that happened in Miami.

A drug dog sniffed the front door of a house and detected marijuana inside. So, police officers got a warrant and busted the homeowner for growing the illegal drugs.

Now that homeowner is suing, saying this action violated his fourth amendment right against illegal search and seizure.

Pensacola police officers say they're ready to adapt if the law changes.

Almost everyday a K-9 dog is helping Pensacola police officers stop crime, but it's all thanks to hard work. The K-9 teams undergo hundreds of hours of schooling, weekly training, and yearly tests to make sure no one's slacking.

These dogs are highly effective in drug investigations. Their noses are 100 times stronger than humans.

“You get the accolades for finding the big drugs; of course everybody wants the kilo of cocaine and the hundreds of pounds of marijuana,"said Lt. Tom Lyter, a K-9 trainer at the Pensacola Police department. "I was impressed with my dog’s ability to find the small amount; the crack rock that’s hidden under the floor mat in the back seat or in the ash tray.”

Noses are key tools in finding drugs. Lt. Lyter said if an officer smells pot reeking from a car, that's probable cause to search the vehicle. But he said this lawsuit is weighing whether it's legal to sniff outside the privacy of someone's home.

"The Supreme Court case isn't so much attack the dog as it is the reason that the dog was there. Why did the officers have the dog at the front door?" Lyter said. "Is it constitutional to allow your dog to indiscriminately search?”

Lyter said if the Supreme Court rules in this case and finds it unconstitutional, it could mean detectives would have do more investigations and legwork to obtain a search warrant, instead of simply using a dog.

"It’s not going to shut down our unit or anything, it's something that we'll deal with,” Lyter said.

But Lyter said roughly twice a year laws are changing, and police officers are constantly adapting their methods.

For example, he said decades ago, a court ruling changed the methods for shooting at felons who were running away.

He also said a recent Supreme Court case made it illegal to pull someone over for a suspended license and search their car without a warrant.

"I've got 22 years in law enforcement, and I can't count the number of changes we've had to the way we do police work," Lyter said

This is another possible change that law agencies nationwide are keeping a close eye on.

Lyter said his department doesn't really use this method of taking drug dogs to a front door, so their operations wouldn't change very much if the law changes.

Lyter said if this case is taken up by the high court, both sides are making fair arguments, so we'll have to wait and see if the court decides to hear this issue.