Among the law enforcement and judicial methods with very high relevance in the evidentiary proceedings of many ex-communist states, the so-called “scent trail” is included. Its main protagonist is a dog, which convicts the perpetrator. This method originated in the former GDR and was initially secretly employed by the German police against political dissent. Over the years, it became domesticated as one of the accepted strong evidentiary methods, and its acceptance extended to the law enforcement and judicial practices of democratic states in many Eastern Bloc countries. In the Czech Republic, the result of a “scent trail” alone is sufficient as evidence to convict a perpetrator, even for the most serious crimes. Within the scientific community, there is a growing, fact-supported resistance against the uncritical use of this method, while possibly hundreds of innocent individuals spend their sentences in prisons.
