BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - When New York legalized the recreational use of marijuana, it forced police agencies to re-evaluate their K-9 units.
The dogs, many of which were trained to detect marijuana and illegal drugs when out on assignment, were forced to retire because they cannot be un-trained in their smells. Therefore, a drug search for narcotics may be deemed illegal if a dog is used.
Police agencies in the region had to act. The Erie County Sheriff's Office preemptively retired their drug-sniffing dogs in 2019 because they saw the writing on the wall about marijuana's legalization in New York.
"At that point we had moved some funds to buy new dogs and then train them without the scent of marijuana," Erie County Sheriff's spokesman Scott Zylka said. "Then we retired all those K-9s who were trained on detection of marijuana."
The sheriff's office now uses three dogs in their K-9 unit. None of the three can detect marijuana.
Buffalo Police also acted early because of Albany's rhetoric. Police Captain Jeff Rinaldo said the dogs now are trained not to detect marijuana. However, they still have one dog out of six total in their K-9 unit that can detect marijuana.
"We have talked to the Erie County District Attorney's Office about our continued use of that animal," Rinaldo said. "Our understanding based on their review of the law, again a lot of this will be decided on case law moving forward, as long as that dog is used in a manner to detect narcotics other than marijuana, then the use of that dog is still appropriate."
Rinaldo anticipates that dog to remain in service for one more year before it is retired. Its replacement will not be trained on marijuana.
"A fair amount of officer's discretion is going to be utilized in terms of calling for a K-9 to search for a vehicle and I think there will have to be a lot more probable cause than just the thought that there 'might' be something in the car," Rinaldo said. "The odor of marijuana in the car is no longer utilized as reasonable suspicion to search a vehicle. Officers would have to use other techniques and have other reasonable suspicion based on other factors to call a K-9 in the first place."
Police agencies have warned that marijuana's legalization could lead to an increase in the number of people who are driving while high. Buffalo Police currently has two drug recognition experts while the Erie County Sheriff's Office has four on their force.
"The process is three weeks of classroom and then there's another practical training when you go to Jacksonville, Florida, where you have volunteers who are impaired by drugs," Zylka said. "You do all that you learned and you do it hands on. DRE evaluation is not only an observation evaluation, but it's also a physical evaluation."
Rinaldo said Buffalo Police is looking to expand their DRE program and seeing the availability at schools. He thinks accident investigation officers would likely be the first to become certified drug recognition experts and other officers at a later time.
