Evidence,
Criminal
Jan. 30, 2026
When a good dog makes bad law
The Pasadena City Council's acceptance of a donated police tracking dog without scrutiny reflects a dangerous, well-documented pattern in which unreliable canine scent evidence--often amounting to junk science--has led to wrongful arrests and convictions, as shown by cases like Josh Connole's and others where dog alerts supplanted rigorous proof and nearly destroyed innocent lives.
The Pasadena City Council recently followed the old
proverb "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" when it accepted the donation
from the Pasadena Police Foundation for a tracking and trailing dog for the
Pasadena Police Department without considering the documented cases where canine
scent evidence has contributed to wrongful convictions.
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