Radley Balko has a new article at Reason, The Mind of a Police Dog, discussing reasons why drug dogs are not as accurate as police and courts assume. It may not be the dog's fault:

The problem is our confusion about when dogs are picking up a scent and when they are responding to cues from their handlers.

....The problem is that a dog barking or sitting may be responding not to a smell but to his handler's hunch about a suspect's guilt. The reason we have a Fourth Amendment is precisely to prevent searches based on hunches.

Courts don't require warrants for K-9 searches, yet they conclude that a positive hit is probable cause for a search.

A recent Chicago Tribune study found the dogs are frequently wrong. More on the study here, and from Jacob Sullum, in A Drug-Sniffing Coin Would be Cheaper. Once again, the Fourth Amendment is going to the dogs.

Law enforcement groups around the country got together for a day last year, and ten months later, have released a report concluding that more states need to follow the federal system of pre-trial release and adopt policies allowing for pre-trial detention -- and that law enforcement should play a key role in formulating such policies.

The report fails in its introduction (page 4), when it claims:

The group consisted of police executives from large, medium, and small jurisdictions; prosecuting attorneys; academic researchers and scholars; judges; and defense attorneys. (The complete list of attendees is attached as Appendix A.)

There are no defense attorneys listed in "Appendix A." (pages 14 and 15.) Of the two pages of attendees, there's a research director from a criminal defense organization. That's not a criminal defense attorney. To claim criminal defense attorneys (plural no less) participated in the group and agreed with the conclusion is just not true.

This matters, because it claims defense attorneys supported the conclusion:

The consensus among the group was that law enforcement can and should play a leadership role in addressing the issues relative to the pretrial process, particularly those that directly affect public and officer safety and defendant accountability.

Don't confuse the Smart of Crime Project with the new conservative group Right on Crime, championed by Newt Gingrich and his friends. The Smart on Crime Project is the real deal. Today it released a 317 page report on how to fix our broken criminal justice system.

The complete report is here . If you just want to peruse the Executive Summary, it's here. The recommendations are here.

The report to Congress and the Administration covers everything from over-federalization of state crime and over-criminalization to problems with unreliable snitch testimony to the death penalty, false confessions and of course, faulty eyewitness identification, which we know is the greatest cause of wrongful convictions. There's also sections on grand juries, forensic evidence, false confessions and federal sentencing (opposing new mandatory minimums and working to repeal many already on the books.)

The website and project was sponsored by the Constitution Project. A list of contributors is here.

Many states only require the consent of one party to a conversation to legally record it. Some states require the consent of both parties (Think Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky.)

Illinois takes the two party consent rule to a whole new level. For years, it has been a felony to record a conversation unless all parties agree. And, if you record a conversation with a police officer or prosecutor without their consent, it's a class 1 felony punishable by 15 years in prison.

Illinois is charging people who record their conversations with police without their knowledge and consent. The Times article tells the story of one woman who recorded her conversation with an officer when filing a complaint for sexual harassment against another officer. And another of a man who sold art on the sidewalk without a permit and taped his conversation with an officer who arrested him for the violation.

The ACLU has been trying to have the law declared invalid, to no avail so far. Other states with similar laws: Oregon and Massachusetts. Here's a handy state-by-state guide (but check to see that it's up to date on your state.)

The former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, tells Time Magazine he's changed his mind about the war on drugs, and now believes all drugs should be legalized.

"Prohibition didn't work in the Garden of Eden. Adam ate the apple," says Fox, 68, looking relaxed in a polo shirt — in contrast to his stressful last days in office. "We have to take all the production chain out of the hands of criminals and into the hands of producers — so there are farmers that produce marijuana and manufacturers that process it and distributors that distribute it and shops that sell it ... I don't want to say that legalizing means that drugs are good. They are not good but bad for your health, and you shouldn't take them. But ultimately, this responsibility is with citizens."

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In 2009, I supported Richard Aborn for District Attorney of Manhattan. I liked most of his stated policies (except the ones on gun control) and wrote about them often. Aborn lost to Richard Vance.

In the light of Jared Loughner, who while not a teenager, is still quite young, I started thinking about Richard's policies, which laid out concrete solutions that well could make a difference.

Again, I am not one of those calling for a gentler political discourse as I think the topic had little to do with Loughner's actions. I think his slide into mental impairment holds the key. The question becomes, since we know he's not the only unbalanced, unhinged, mentally impaired young person out there, how do we spot the next one and what do we do to turn him around?

This paper by Richard presents some excellent suggestions. I urge you to read it: BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE: A NEW STRATEGY FOR PREVENTING JUVENILE CRIME: [More...]

Republican Governor Nathan Deal was sworn into office in Georgia today. Addressing budget issues, he said:

"Presently, one out of every 13 Georgia residents is under some form of correctional control," Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, told state lawmakers during his inaugural address. "It cost about $3 million per day to operate our Department of Corrections. And yet, every day criminals continue to inflict violence on our citizens and an alarming number of perpetrators are juveniles."

From his inaugural speech: [More..]

There will undoubtedly be calls for stricter gun control laws as a result of yesterday's shootings in Arizona. We don't need more laws.

Guns did not cause the rage, desperation or mental illness that led the Arizona shooter to kill people. It doesn't take a newsflash to know that people who feel persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others may resort to violence. And all the gun laws in the world won't stop the next person bent on doing the same thing

There's no question that one lone wolf can cause a lot of damage, but putting more resources into prevention, particularly recognizing and treating mental health issues, and funding re-entry programs instead of building more prisons, are far better solutions than putting more laws on the books, ramping up our already massive security programs and increasing the use of privacy-intrusive investigative techniques. [More...]

Newt Gingrich, who in 1994 gave us his Contract on America, which included a draconian ten point crime bill called the Taking Back Our Streets Act is now switching horses, joining the newly founded conservative group Right on Crime, that advocates for prison reform and reducing our reliance on incarceration as a cost-savings measure.

Right on Crime has a spiffy new website. It's a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a research institute in Austin, TX "committed to limited government, free markets, private property rights, individual liberty and personal responsibility."

The Libertarians have often been our allies in the fight to be smart about crime instead of tough on crime. When criminal defense lawyers fought Newt's 1994 Contract, where did we find help lobbying against the provisions that would have applied the good faith exception to warrantless searches and restricted habeas petitions? From the Second Amendment groups. [More...]

The Chicago Tribune has completed a review of three years of data on drug detection dogs used in traffic stops. It finds the dogs were wrong more often than they were right. Only 44% of positive alerts led to the recovery of drugs or paraphernalia. The success rate dropped to 27% for hispanic drivers.

Most courts hold that during a traffic stop, if a properly trained dog alerts, it amounts to probable cause to search the vehicle. The problem seems to be that many of the dogs, and their handlers, are not properly trained. Few states require certification and mandatory training and there is a paucity of "best practices" or even uniform standards. [More...]

Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday convened the inaugural meeting of the Cabinet-level "Reentry Council." Established with grant money from the Second Chance Act, the council will focus on:

• making communities safer by reducing recidivism and victimization;
• assisting those returning from prison and jail in becoming productive, tax paying citizens; and
• saving taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration.

The goals:

The Reentry Council will meet semi-annually to leverage resources across agencies to reduce recidivism and victimization; identify evidence-based practices that advance the council’s mission; promote changes to federal statutes, policies and practices that focus on reducing crime; and identify federal policy opportunities and barriers to improve outcomes for the reentry community.

According to Attorney General Holder: [More...]

Colorado Representative Jared Polis says the feds should stay away from marijuana enforcement in states that allow its use.

He's going to introduce a bill to keep marijuana laws at the local level.

Under Polis' structure, marijuana laws would be extremely local — similar to states that have so-called dry, alcohol- free counties. "It's not in the federal government's realm," Polis said.

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