By Max Maddison
NSW Police drug-detection dogs incorrectly detect illicit substances on patrons 75 per cent of the time, raising questions about the efficacy of enforcement as the state’s festival season starts.
The startling figures come as a report from the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) reveals the police are falling short on self-imposed initiatives designed to ensure the law was followed when undertaking strip-searches.
Under NSW law, police can undertake either general or strip-searches if they suspect someone has illicit drugs in their possession. Sniffer dogs are used by police to sense drugs and screen for suspicious behaviour.
Data obtained through the parliament by NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann shows of the 94,535 general and strip-searches undertaken from 2013 to June 30 this year, 70,913 yielded no illicit drugs, a success rate of just 25 per cent.
The worst year for drug-detection dogs was 2014, when only 21 per cent of the 14,213 searches resulted in illicit drugs being found; the best was two years later in 2016, where 32.5 per cent of the 8746 searches were accurate.
In 2023, across 663 deployments and 4006 searches, drugs were identified just under 29 per cent of the time.
The number of searches undertaken had plummeted over the decade, but with the 14,213 searches in 2014 falling by more than half to 6529 in 2022, considerably below the 2019 figure of 10,760.
One of the 109 recommendations from 2020 Special Commission of Inquiry into the drug ice was ceasing the use of drug detection dogs at music festivals.
The recommendation wasn’t supported by the then-Coalition government in 2022, who said NSW Police maintained sniffer dogs were the “best method” available.
With the state’s festival season starting over the October long weekend, NSW Health warned ecstasy tablets with four times the usual dosage of MDMA were in circulation, causing risk of serious illness or death.
NSW Health has warned unusually strong ecstasy pills are in circulation ahead of the long weekend.
The failure of sniffer dogs came as the LECC review identified a number of shortcomings in the way NSW Police documented and followed initiatives in relation to strip-searches.
The initiatives were agreed to by NSW Police after a 2020 report from LECC outlined broad problems with strip-search record-keeping standards and compliance with legal thresholds required to justify searches.
But three years later, many of the problems remained.
Of the 359 police records relating to 83 general searches and 77 strip-searches, LECC found only 35 per cent of those records were “clear, complete and consistent to the standard required”, while only 27 per cent contained information regarding whether police followed strip-search rules.
The problems were compounded by a failure to complete mandatory Music Festivals Fundamentals training. The review found 47 per cent of officers did not complete it within the required time frame, and 28 per cent had not completed it whatsoever.
“This review highlights that training and policies are not enough to change conduct. It is critical that new processes are effectively communicated to all police officers and reinforced with proper supervision on the ground,” the LECC review stated.
A NSW Police spokeswoman said drug detection dogs were “very effective” with the “majority” of searches from canine indication resulting “in either drugs being located, or the person admitting recent contact with illegal drugs, which proves the effectiveness”.
NSW Police was taking steps to “rectify the gaps in training and knowledge” identified in the LECC review, including “re-issuing the Music Festivals Guidelines to all officers in the field”.
Faehrmann said the findings from the LECC review were “outrageous”, saying it demonstrated NSW Police had no concern for the standards required for undertaking a strip-search.
“Without adequate records of why or how searches are being conducted, I can only assume most are being undertaken illegally and baselessly and nothing has changed,” she said.
NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann obtained the data relating to drug-detection dogs via the parliament.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Last week the Labor government came under fire for failing to include funding for the promised drug summit in the September budget.
The omission was criticised by Professor Dan Howard, SC, who led the ice inquiry. He blasted the government for perpetuating the state’s “long-standing drug policy vacuum”.
Premier Chris Minns has declined to say when the summit will be held, only that it will go ahead within the government’s first term of parliament.
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