Who Let the Dogs In?

Supreme Court of Illinois holds that use of a drug-detection dog violated Fourth Amendment in People v. Burns.

On January 10, 1013 at 3:20 am, the police along with a drug-detection dog went into defendant’s apartment building. This officer and his dog got into the building when a tenant let in a fellow officer, who was undercover. The drug dog alerted to defendant’s apartment door and a search warrant was obtained. The apartment was searched, drugs were found, and defendant was charged.

The Illinois Supreme Court first looked at the United States Supreme Court case of Florida v. Jardines, in which the police took a drug dog to the front porch of the defendant’s home and sniffed the door. The Supreme Court of the United States found that this was a search for Fourth Amendment purposes. The US Supreme Court went on to state that the areas surrounding and associated with the home are considered part of the home.

The Illinois Supreme Court found that the common areas of defendant’s apartment building were not open to the public and that the search was illegal.

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