Dale Mills, Sydney
A NSW Ombudsman’s report on the police use of sniffer dogs found that it is a waste of money that fails to catch serious drug dealers. The report said that 47% of people sniffed were under 26, and three-quarters of those who were sniffed and searched didn’t have drugs on them. Small amounts of cannabis was the most common find.
The investigation found that of the 10,211 people who were stopped at train stations, in pubs and on streets, only a quarter were carrying illegal drugs. Of those, almost all were carrying small amounts of cannabis and just 19 people were convicted of supplying drugs. The Drug Detection Dog Unit cost $870,000 in 2002-03.
Ombudsman Bruce Barbour questioned the usefulness of the program, and made 55 recommendations for its improvement. “Despite the best efforts of police, the evidence suggests that there is little value in trying to identify drug dealers by screening people with drug detection dogs in public places”, he was quoted as saying in the September 15 Sydney Morning Herald.
The over-use of the dogs at venues where young people gather, including the noticeably gay areas of Darlinghurst and Newtown in Sydney, causes particular anger. NSW Greens MP and justice spokesperson Lee Rhiannon said that, while young people are being harassed, “big drug dealers and manufacturers have got off scot-free”. She added, “It is well known that fear of sniffer dogs has encouraged some young people to change from cannabis to more harmful recreational drugs, because they are more easily concealed from sniffer dogs”.
[For more information, visit <http://www.nswccl.org.au/issues/sniffer_dogs.php>. The report can be found at <http://www.nswombudsman.nsw.gov.au/>.]
