Are Victim Detection and Forensic Evidence Search Dogs reliable?

[ferryman]

After Eddie alerted to a burned-out and hose-drenched Lantra in Strabane, was any physical evidence obtained from that car and identified in a lab?

Yes.  According to Grime a deposit was found (presumably blood) from which Attracta Haron's DNA was extracted.

[stephen25000]

Maybe the thread title should be changed to "Were Eddie and Keela a Pile of S**te"?
Despite the true thread title the conversation never drifts far from how rubbish Eddie and Keela were in the eyes of people who can't know much about VR and CSI dogs. If they did know about such dogs they would be making shedsful of dosh freelancing rather than spending inordinate amounts of time posting on here how rubbish two specific dogs and their handler were 

Nice one Alice.

[pegasus]

Yes.  According to Grime a deposit was found (presumably blood) from which Attracta Haron's DNA was extracted.

Thanks.

[G-Unit]

Maybe the thread title should be changed to "Were Eddie and Keela a Pile of S**te"?
Despite the true thread title the conversation never drifts far from how rubbish Eddie and Keela were in the eyes of people who can't know much about VR and CSI dogs. If they did know about such dogs they would be making shedsful of dosh freelancing rather than spending inordinate amounts of time posting on here how rubbish two specific dogs and their handler were 

Well said. Dogs are a very useful tool, which is why they are used. If they weren't useful they wouldn't be used. Sometimes there is no evidence to back up the alerts. Anyone who thinks policemen then shrug their shoulders and forget about the alerts is naive. They suggest a possibility, and any investigation worth the name will keep that possibility on the list of possibilities.

[pathfinder73]

Yes.  According to Grime a deposit was found (presumably blood) from which Attracta Haron's DNA was extracted.

This is why the dogs come to investigate even after a body is found.

BLOOD found in the boot of Meg Walsh's car matched her DNA, her murder trial heard yesterday.

The 35-year-old mother-of one's body was recovered from the River Suir on October 15, 2006 after she had been missing for two weeks.

Michael Burlington, a forensic scientist, yesterday told Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court that DNA matching both Ms Walsh and Mr O'Brien was discovered in the boot of her car.

Her blood was also found on the hardboard spare wheel cover, which had also been thrown away and sections cut from both the hardboard and the mat which were found in a nearby housing estate.
There were also patches of Ms Walsh's blood on the back of the driver's seat and the inside of the driver's door.

No blood was found in a detailed search of the house or the garden shed or dog house.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/murder-trial-is-told-megs-dna-matched-blood-in-car-26442044.html

[Brietta]

Maybe the thread title should be changed to "Were Eddie and Keela a Pile of S**te"?
Despite the true thread title the conversation never drifts far from how rubbish Eddie and Keela were in the eyes of people who can't know much about VR and CSI dogs. If they did know about such dogs they would be making shedsful of dosh freelancing rather than spending inordinate amounts of time posting on here how rubbish two specific dogs and their handler were 

If the people who promote Eddie's ability to bark ex cathedra were correct Dr Kate McCann would have been watching the Portuguese sky from behind bars.

The fact she is not would appear to indicate they are somewhat in error if not entirely misguided.

[Mr Gray]

Well said. Dogs are a very useful tool, which is why they are used. If they weren't useful they wouldn't be used. Sometimes there is no evidence to back up the alerts. Anyone who thinks policemen then shrug their shoulders and forget about the alerts is naive. They suggest a possibility, and any investigation worth the name will keep that possibility on the list of possibilities.

I think you are naïve and misguided  to think the alerts have any value.... there is the possibility without the alerts...in this case I think the value of the alerts has been totally discredited. Dogs will continue to be used as they can find evidence...and they are very good at it

[Mr Gray]

did maddie die in the apartment..we don't know
do the dogs give the answer no...
they are of no use whatsoever

[pegasus]

If the people who promote Eddie's ability to bark ex cathedra were correct Dr Kate McCann would have been watching the Portuguese sky from behind bars.

The fact she is not would appear to indicate they are somewhat in error if not entirely misguided.

IMO no because it would be easily proven those are not the clothes this truthful witness was wearing.

[Brietta]

IMO no because it would be easily proven those are not the clothes this truthful witness was wearing.

That is precisely why the indications given by Eddie, with the exception of his 'blood' alerts are unreliable.

There is absolutely not a single shred of evidence either forensic or circumstantial which supports them.

[pegasus]

That is precisely why the indications given by Eddie, with the exception of his 'blood' alerts are unreliable.

There is absolutely not a single shred of evidence either forensic or circumstantial which supports them.

The point is that those clothes were not being worn at the time of the disappearance.

[pathfinder73]

The point is that those clothes were not being worn at the time of the disappearance.

You do not know what clothes were being worn because you weren't in that apartment at 6:30 on 3 May. Gerry was playing tennis and DP didn't see Kate wearing a towel.

[G-Unit]

I think you are naïve and misguided  to think the alerts have any value.... there is the possibility without the alerts...in this case I think the value of the alerts has been totally discredited. Dogs will continue to be used as they can find evidence...and they are very good at it

Of course there was the possibility without the alerts.That's why the dogs were recommended - to check out the possibility. The dogs came and said 'yes, something happened here'. Now the possibility is stronger than before the dogs came.

[ferryman]

So your an expert now in the use of forensic dogs as well.

What was Eddie barking at?

The toy?

Or something else?

[ferryman]

Here is a challenge for anyone who would care to take it up.

Part of that FOI answer Brietta gave us earler, omitted from what Brietta posted, stated, in answer to a question submitted by the sender about what training or preparation Eddie received to prepare him for his duties as a police dog, that Eddie's trainiing was (sic) in accordance with standard ACPO guidelines.

Here is the ACPO dog-training manual.

Who would like to find where, in it, it states that we send dogs to America to be trained on human remains:

http://www.dyfed-powys.police.uk/media/1817/police_dog_manual_of_guidance_2011_foi_version.pdf