After years of lobbying by legal services, human rights groups and victims of questionable police conduct, NSW police have finally conceded that the use of drug dogs at music festivals and other major events has mostly targeted people who use drugs, not traffickers.
When the Police Powers (Drug Detections Dogs) Act 2021 was introduced, the government claimed that drug dogs will only target suppliers. Now police claim that they have ‘pivoted to a more drug-supply focus’:
‘One of the state’s top cops has said that the days of young people “going through a gauntlet of police lined with drug dogs” at music festivals are over as the focus shifts to train stations, parks and more secluded locations to target those selling drugs to festivalgoers.’
NSW Police to target drug supply rather than possession at music festivals
So, what’s been going on over the past 25 years?
The statement that ‘we’ll be going after traffickers and not users’ in this news report is a regular one from police. As a former police member I know how this works. The use of drug dogs is fundamentally about a ‘high visible police presence’ as a form of deterrence. That’s why dogs are used in high visibility places such as train stations where they can be seen by high numbers of commuters. Police put a lot of emphasis on this approach. Booze buses act in a similar way.
The fact is that the majority of people searched by police after drug dog indications do not have drugs in their possession. Furthermore, those that are found with drugs are not charged with drug supply, just possession.
‘Targeting suppliers only’ sounds good and gives police the ‘moral high ground’ and is a feel good for the media. However, in practical terms, there’s not going to be a lot of difference in how police use drug detection dogs. If it was the case, why hasn’t this approach been successful over the past 25 years?
When a police dog indicates that a person may have a drug in their possession, there’s no way of distinguishing whether that person is a supplier or user, or both. It’s irrelevant if the person is lurking down a dark alley or riding the escalator at a train station.
In practical terms drug dogs can’t make a determination whether its trafficking or use of drugs until the person that has been detected, has been interrogated and searched. This process is traumatic and harmful. Imagine if your son or daughter was apprehended by police and forced to submit to an intrusive search, including strip searching.
People who are being detained as suspects for a drug offence will be a victim of the coercive powers and intimidating actions of police regardless of whether they are a suspect for trafficking or use.
This announcement by NSW Police seems to be more spin than ‘substance’ – pardon the pun. However in terms how drugs dogs will be used at music festivals very little is likely to change, despite the spin.
Greg Denham – HRA Board Member
See HRA Report – The Use of Strip Searches & Drug Dogs in NSW Report – Harm Reduction Australia