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Who let the (police) dogs out?

While you’re sitting at your desk trying to focus on finishing your geometry worksheet, something interrupts your train of thought. The intercom blasts telling teachers that the school is under lock-down. Your teacher jumps up from her chair and sprints to the door to lock it. No one really knows what’s going on; no one is allowed to leave the classroom. Out of nowhere you hear dogs scratching and barking. Finally, you realize it’s a drug search.

Do you know what goes on during a drug search? Not many students can answer this question with much detail. ”It’s not meant to be intimidating; it’s meant to be a surprise,” said School Resource Officer J. Johnson. During a drug search, law enforcement brings in highly trained drug dogs to help with the job. As you’re sitting in class, police officers and their canine partners walk around our school and parking lot in search for any illegal drugs.

When police officers and their K-9’s come into the school, they do a general search through all the learning centers. Officers run their hands against the lockers to motion to the dogs to sniff across the them. If a dog senses that there are drugs in the lockers, they double-back to find the exact source of the smell. The locker’s owner is then called out of class to open their locker in front of the authorities.

Sniffing out drugs in the school parking lot and the surrounding neighborhood looks similar. The police use wind direction to assist the dog’s sense of smell. The officers will walk a zigzag pattern around the lot, allowing the dogs to search for marijuana, methamphetamines, heroin, and cocaine. “People who abuse one drug often abuse another,” said Johnson. If drugs are suspected in a student’s car, the administration will call the student to their car and ask them to open it. “Anyone has the right to say no, but we only ask them as a courtesy,” said Johnson. The dogs just smelling the drugs and indicating to law enforcement that they are in the vehicle is enough probable cause to search the vehicle without consent.

Students who are caught with illegal drugs are then arrested. They are escorted to the office where their parents are called and they are issued the criminal citation. High school authorities often also issue a school punishment, such as school suspension. Johnson said he doesn’t want to find drugs on school property, but he knows it exists. He thinks the searches are worth it. “I do believe keeping the drug-free zone keeps the distractions down and maintains the learning in the school environment.”