A Legend Falls In Line Of Duty

He was a legend among Southern lawmen. Robbie Bishop, they said, could sniff out contraband cash and drugs better even than the dogs he trained to do it, CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports.

In seven years, he helped seize more than 10,000 pounds of narcotics and $8 million in cash, all from cars and trucks that just seemed to catch his eye while patrolling the South's busy interstates.

It was on just such a stop last week, near his hometown of Villa Rica, Georgia, that Bishop's curiosity finally got the better of him.

The man he stopped shot him in the back of the head. He was buried Sunday. More than 3,000 people showed up for the funeral. The police car procession alone stretched for 21 miles.

Bishop's career was unique because his techniques were pretty much copied throughout the South. Controversial with defense lawyers but popular with cops, it became known as the profile search: stop as many cars as you can that meet a certain profile and you're bound to hit a jackpot.

Deputies in Spalding County, Georgia, for example, say Bishop taught them and their dogs all the tricks to spotting drug runners.

"We knew what types of vehicles to look for, where they were coming from, the way the vehicle was sitting, the way the person drove when he came by you - a whole lot of things," said Sgt. William Gregory.

Nobody knows exactly what it was that caught Bishop's eye last week, but his instincts, it's now clear, were right about one thing. The man he stopped and who is now wanted for his murder had a 15-year arrest record.

More from CBS News