Matt McCarthy
December 13, 2009
Forensics
Dogs
This article discusses the controversial method of using trained dogs in “scent line ups” to link a suspect to a crime scene. This method has come under scrutiny because of the potential for cross-contamination of scents and the dog’s perception of a human’s attention to the container that holds their scent. Most of the FBI is against this method and says dogs should only be used to find a crime scene or suspect by using scents but shouldn’t be able to pick one out of a line up. However, Thomas Litner is a FBI agent who claims this practice is useful and has been around for a long time. This method is widely used in Texas where people are currently starting lawsuits against local sheriff departments for being sentenced because of a dog scent line up.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/dogs-forensic-science-and-scent-lineups/?scp=3&sq=forensic%20science&st=cse
2 comments:
This article was very interesting. One aspect of the article that I thought was very well presented was first why there is so much controversy on “line ups” where the dogs choose. The second point is that even the FBI is against using this method while this would really help the FBI and other crime unites in indentifying certain suspects. A third aspect if this article that was well presented was that people have been persecuted as a result of being indentified by a dog line up and they are in lawsuits against this.
One suggestion I have for this article is to go a little more in depth about what allows the dog to pick the correct person from the line up. And how does their heightened sense of smell help them in this process. Also, I believe that the article should go more into why people are holding lawsuits against being found guilty as a result of these dog line ups.
I was really impressed that our crime teams could come up with something that is so creative. Using a dog’s superior sense of smell is used in finding missing people, finding drugs and bombs and much more. This is the bases that allow dogs to use their sense of smell to find a suspect and in the lineup show that they are guilty as a result of their scent.
This article is very interesting it brings up a great argument against methods used in law enforcement. One can see the benefits of the use of dogs to sniff out suspects, but it also has its flaws. The use of dogs is great. They are much more adept at sensing things than humans. We as people might as well use their superior senses to our advantage. There is no human emotion or thinking getting in the way. Also the use of dogs is relatively inexpensive. The flaws which siome people argue are that the dogs can easily be mixed up when scents mix. Relying on animals to detect a perpetrator, and leads to their fate is scary. They are animals after all and unreliable. They cant voice their reasoning.
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