Data shows drug-detection dogs are often wrong
NSW police data about the accuracy of sniffer dogs have raised fresh questions about the basis for drug searches. Figures obtained through the parliament and published by the Nine newspapers this week found that about three quarters of the time general and strip searches don't turn up any illicit drugs.
Transcript
00:00 I think it's what we expected.
00:04 We've known for some time, as has the ombudsman in reports over many years, that the use of
00:09 the drug detection dogs is fairly flawed.
00:12 And what it leads to is a program that's putting people, predominantly young people, through
00:17 a fairly traumatic experience for no reason at all.
00:20 And I think rather, I know the report was based on the level of training that's being
00:25 provided to officers for strip searching and undertaking searches, but the whole program
00:31 needs to be put under review and stopped while that review is happening.
00:36 So New South Wales Police claim that sniffer dogs do work.
00:39 Their basis for that is that they suggest that of the people who don't have drugs on
00:43 them, many do then admit to having recent contact with drugs.
00:47 But are you suggesting that they just shouldn't be used as evidence for searches?
00:51 No, I think that when you have a success rate, and no disrespect to the dogs, I'm sure they're
00:56 hard working and try hard, but a 75% failure rate on detection, that's not a good indicator
01:03 for police then to actually engage in a process with people where they take them behind a
01:08 screen and get them to remove all their clothes and search them for what they believe may
01:14 be drugs, when most of the time we know that's not going to work.
01:16 There just seems to be a lack of understanding about the trauma that creates for some people,
01:21 particularly those, and we've heard of many cases of this, particularly people who are
01:25 attending festivals who may have been in the past victims of sexual assault and the like,
01:30 they sort of, you know, you look nervous, the dog sat down and now you have to take
01:33 all your clothes off and undergo a body cavity search.
01:36 That's just abhorrent really.
01:38 So a police officer does need a reason to search someone for illicit drugs.
01:42 What do you think the bar should be, if not detection by a sniffer dog, what should be
01:48 the bar to give an officer reasonable suspicion?
01:52 Well they should be trained in order to ascertain from asking questions, from looking at the
01:57 person perhaps and understanding what their surroundings are, but it just comes back to
02:02 the fundamental targeting of people attending festivals and events.
02:07 The best analogy I can give you is at Melbourne Cup coming up at the moment, Spring Carnival
02:10 heading into our calendar shortly, we expect a lot of people to be intoxicated.
02:16 What we do is we put in programs to reduce or mitigate the risk, responsible service,
02:21 making sure people don't wander onto the road by having traffic barriers in place and extra
02:26 public transport to mitigate the risk that causes.
02:29 And I think we need that fundamental shift in how we approach drug use at festivals and
02:34 at other events.
02:35 As much as we say it shouldn't occur, we know it occurs, so let's make sure that people
02:40 don't get hurt.
02:41 And there's also the added problem that when you have these programs in place like drug
02:47 detection and lines of police you have to go through to get to a festival, some people
02:51 panic and in one tragic case in WA, the coroner reviewed, found that a young girl who had
02:58 a tablet for herself and a couple of others for her friends panicked, swallowed the lot
03:03 and ended up overdosing, a fatal overdose, at age 17 or 18.
03:09 That's a tragedy that should have been avoided.
03:12 There was a Law Enforcement Conduct Commission review published in New South Wales this week
03:16 into strip searches.
03:17 It found that most of the time records aren't being kept of strip searches to the required
03:22 standard, officers conducting them haven't done mandatory training most of the time.
03:27 Does that suggest anything to you about the attitude of police toward these searches?
03:32 I think because they've been able to get away with doing it for so long without any repercussions
03:37 or any real scrutiny that it's hard to break that.
03:40 But that's why I think the whole program has to stop.
03:43 I just wonder sometimes if people understand what's involved in this process of strip searching
03:49 people.
03:50 Perhaps we should position the dogs just outside New South Wales Parliament entrance and New
03:56 South Wales Police Headquarters and see if they actually stop and sit beside someone
04:00 and the people who advocate this program should maybe participate and understand what it means
04:05 to actually do this to people.
04:07 They seem to be having this worldview that it's always other people and it doesn't matter
04:11 because it's other people.
04:12 Well, they're our kids, our friends and our family and they deserve a bit more respect
04:17 than that, than a 75% failure rate.
04:20 And some people suggest that there's legal questions about the basis for these searches.
04:27 Is there any recourse or has anyone ever tried taking legal action after being strip searched
04:31 because a sniffer dog has sat next to them?
04:35 My understanding is that Redfern Legal Centre, which has a class action going through at
04:39 the moment, because there are a number of people and particularly, unfortunately, young
04:43 women who have been previous victims of sexual assault or that have been put through this
04:48 traumatic process for no reason other than they looked nervous or the dog sat down and
04:52 they weren't carrying any drugs nor had they been in contact with any illicit substances.
04:56 So they were put through that whole ordeal without proper process or a proper rationale
05:05 or reason for that to occur.
05:07 And in some cases, the way they were treated and spoke to only furthered that trauma.
05:12 I think New South Wales Police just have to stop this.
05:17 When you see this occurring and you just wonder about really what sort of society we have
05:22 where police can just say, don't like the look of you, don't like the way you acted,
05:27 come behind this screen, take all your clothes off, we're going to search you.
05:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]