The use of mantrailing dogs in police and judicial context, future directions, limits and possibilities - A law review

Leif Woidtke; Frank Crispino; Barbara Ferry; Udo Gansloßer; Nina Marie Hohlfeld; Tom Osterkamp

doi:10.1016/j.fsisyn.2023.100439

The use of mantrailing dogs in police and judicial context, future directions, limits and possibilities - A law review

Forensic Sci Int Synerg. 2023 Oct 4:7:100439. doi: 10.1016/j.fsisyn.2023.100439. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Leif Woidtke¹, Frank Crispino², Barbara Ferry³, Udo Gansloßer⁴, Nina Marie Hohlfeld⁵, Tom Osterkamp⁶

Affiliations

¹ University of Applied Police Sciences, Friedensstraße 120, 02929, Rothenburg/O.L., Germany.
² Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada.
³ Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France.
⁴ Udo Gansloßer - Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany.
⁵ King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand.
⁶ University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA.

Abstract

The extraordinary capabilities of the canine nose are increasingly being used by law enforcement agencies in many countries to solve and reconstruct crimes. As a result, this type of forensic evidence can be and is still being challenged in the courts. So far, only a few publications have addressed the jurisprudence concerning mantrailing. We provide an overview of the jurisprudence in Germany and the USA, as well as insights from France. Relevant databases were searched, and 201 verdicts from Germany and 801 verdicts from the USA were analyzed. As a result, 16 published verdicts on the topic of mantrailing were found for Germany, and 44 verdicts since 2010 were found for the USA. The use of mantrailers and human scent discrimination dogs is employed in the investigative process in all three countries. The results derived from these methods are admissible as evidence in court, albeit not as sole evidence.

Keywords: Forensic science; Human scent evidence; Law; Mantrailing; Mantrailing as evidence in court.

Publication types

Review