Police Dogs’ Sniff Search Deemed Constitutional

Allowing police dogs to sniff student lockers for drugs does not violate students’ constitutional rights, according to a legal opinion requested by the Simi Valley Unified School District.

The district is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to bring 10 officers and their dogs on campus while students are in class to sniff lockers for drugs. The exercise would serve as training for the county’s canine units and as a deterrent to students who would bring drugs to school.

A decision was delayed three weeks ago after board members raised concerns about future lawsuits if students felt their rights to privacy were violated.

But a legal opinion provided by the Los Angeles law firm Liebert, Cassidy and Frierson said that dogs sniffing lockers does not constitute a “search” under the 4th Amendment to the Constitution, and therefore does not violate rights.

Administrators would stay with police to write down the numbers of any lockers singled out by the dogs. The original proposal called for police to leave stickers on lockers to identify them for administrators. But some students and board members said the stickers might “mark” those students as involved with drugs before anything was proven.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.