NEW SCOTLAND — Probable cause — needed for police to search a person or a car, for example — was challenged this year when a sheriff’s deputy said he smelled marijuana coming from a car parked in the early morning hours at Thacher Park.

On Jan. 29, the driver was approached by an Albany County Sheriff’s Deputy about the smell of marijuana coming from his car. He said that the car always smelled like pot and the officer could not search his car without a warrant, according to a police arrest report.

Captain James Goss of the sheriff’s office said the officer already had probable cause to search the car without a warrant because of the smell. Still, a narcotics detection dog was brought in “to double down” on the probable cause, he said.

“It’s sort of a gray area,” said Melanie Trimble, of the New York Civil Liberties Union, regarding someone’s right not to be searched and the probable cause that allows it.

Trimble noted that, if police officers have any suspicion about the person they have stopped, they can search that person, but the person being searched can voice objection to the search and should, said Trimble, because this can then be used in court. She did add, however, that continuous objection can escalate matters.

“The question then becomes why you were encountered by the police in the first place,” said Trimble.

Trimble noted probable cause has been questioned in cases with the Albany Police Department and with the stop-and-frisk procedures used by New York City Police Department — the NYPD recently agreed to curb such tactics in a settlement.

Still, Trimble said, it is likely that in the Thacher Park case there was probable cause to search the car.

“Smoking marijuana is illegal, still,” said Trimble. “The smell of marijuana does give a police officer probable cause.”

The driver, unidentified in the report, was not arrested but a passenger in the car, a teenage girl, was. She gave a different name and date of birth that indicated she was over 18 at the time of the arrest, when in fact she was not, according to the arrest report.

Goss said he wasn’t sure of the reason she didn’t give her correct name or age, but believes it was because she was trying not to get in trouble for marijuana possession.

The teen was arrested for false personation, a misdemeanor, and taken to the sheriff’s station in Clarksville, where she was found to have a bag of marijuana and was arrested for unlawful possession of marijuana, a violation. A female officer was brought in from the Guilderland Police Department for a pat down. Goss said that frisking is typically done in an arrest, but that a female officer was brought in so as not to make the teenager uncomfortable.

The suspect was due in New Scotland Town Court on Feb. 9.