Gregory T. Jones

“ Thus, absent independent reasonable suspicion to detain a motorist, no officer should be empowered to delay completion or delivery of the traffic stop paperwork simply to continue trolling for probable cause or, in a case such as this one, to buy time so that the canine cavalry can arrive to save the day. ”

“ It is well-established that, after routine checks and related paperwork are completed during the course of a lawful traffic stop, "continued detention of the driver can become unreasonable" unless the officer has developed adequate reason to suspect that criminal activity is afoot. Sims v. State, 356 Ark. 507, 514, 157 S.W.3d 530 (2004) . Mr. Jackson argues that Trooper Behnke had sufficient time to complete the ticket-writing process and that he had developed no additional reasonable suspicion during the course of the traffic stop to justify Jackson's continued detention. ”

“ Given the fact that the trial judge was both able to review it and to hear live testimony about it, I feel compelled to defer to the circuit court's factual findings and related inferences on this point.
↑ The State invokes this principle as justification for the somewhat tardy drug sniff, arguing that " [t] he legitimate purpose of a traffic stop does not end . . . until the officer delivers the vehicle's documentation, along with a ticket or warning, to the driver." ”

“ The Court of Appeals dispatched with the challenge to the drug dog's reliability by stating "Trooper Behnke provided both his and his dog's training and certification records. That is all that is required to establish the dog's reliability." 2012 Ark. App. 508, at 5. That somewhat oversimplifies the analysis where, as here, the defendant challenged reliability. ”

“ Significantly, the "clearly against the preponderance of the evidence" language was not mentioned as having any role in the analysis.
But by 2007, such "clearly against the preponderance of the evidence" verbiage inexplicably started re-appearing as a sort-of legal coda to the Davis search and seizure standard of review. See, e.g., Yarbrough v. State, 370 Ark 31, 36, 257 S.W.3d 50 (2007) (citing Laime) . That approach has continued, albeit inconsistently, up through the present. E.g., Menne v. State, 2012 Ark. 37, at 5, 386 S.W.3d 451. But see State v. ”

“ III. The Canine Sniff Reliability/Probable Cause FrameworkIII. The Canine Sniff Reliability/Probable Cause Framework One final observation regarding the evidentiary thicket surrounding drug sniff cases bears mentioning. ”