5 Reasons You Should Never Agree to a Police Search (Even if You Have Nothing to Hide)

[sofa king]

42. The dogs are the big one in Virginia.

In fact, the dog angle contradicts a good proportion of the positive outcomes mentioned in that article. If you refuse a search of your vehicle, and they think they're on to something, they will make you wait as long as they can for the K-9 car to show up, wasting your time, and the dog appears to be the instrument that can create probable cause out of nothing.

On a number of occasions I've seen people refuse vehicle searches. Virtually every time, the very next thing the officer says is, "okay, we'll wait until the K-9 car shows up." Apparently, a dog is allowed to search a vehicle even when a human police officer cannot.

However, that may be bullshit, because even though I've seen that play out at least three times, I've never actually seen a K-9 arrive on the scene.

My assumption has always been that "waiting for the dog" is a ruse designed to buy the officer time while he attempts to elicit probable cause through further questioning. But I've heard plenty of stories where the dog did show up.

Do we have any lawyers who can give some general outlines about dog searches of cars? Can one refuse one of those? What about someone like me, who is allergic to dogs? Can I refuse a dog search on health grounds?