Police find no drugs in most searches of people at Victorian music festivals

Victoria Police do not find drugs on more than half the people they search at music festivals, never-before-seen data released to state parliament has revealed as crossbench MPs demand transparency on the effectiveness of sniffer dogs.

Nine people at the Hardmission Festival in Flemington were hospitalised in critical conditions over the weekend with MDMA overdoses – eight of them were put into induced comas – prompting renewed debate on the policing of drugs in Victoria. Three people remained in a critical condition on Monday afternoon.

Police need reasonable grounds to search someone for drugs, which can be obtained through a dog’s indication. For a drug dog operation to occur, police must have intelligence to demonstrate known drug activity in the area.

Of the 277 people searched at music festivals in 2022-23, drugs were not found 157 times. Police did find illicit substances in 120 of the searches conducted, which were mostly general pat-down searches rather than strip searches.

Drugs were found 282 times out of 654 searches in 2021-22, but 372 of the searches yielded no drugs.

Victoria Police has previously refused freedom of information requests for the data and do not publicly detail search results in annual reports despite crossbench MPs seeking explanations for years.

The searches include those sparked by sniffer dogs as well as those initiated because of “police observations of overt behaviours”, the force told the parliament’s public accounts and estimates committee in answers to questions on notice last month. Data from the western Victorian region was missing “due to data capture irregularities”.

Victoria Police argued searches that did not result in drugs being found did not mean a sniffer dog was wrong.

“If a person is carrying drugs, odour will permeate into their clothing and remain after the drugs have been removed leaving a residual odour, resulting in a positive illicit drug indication by the dog,” a police spokesman said.

Sniffer dogs are mostly used at music festivals, as well as transport hubs, and generally result in a pat-down search if they detect the presence of illicit drugs on someone.

A police sniffer dog at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in 2019.Credit: Luis Ascui

“The overwhelming majority of [passive alert detection] dog-initiated searches at music festivals do not result in strip searches, with this outcome extremely rare,” a police spokesman said.

Dr Peta Malins, a senior lecturer in criminology and justice studies at RMIT University, said a search was not justified by someone having residue on their clothes.

She said the overwhelming finding of her research into sniffer dogs was that they did not deter drug-taking, but did increase the likelihood of someone using drugs unsafely by preloading, hiding them in cavities, or taking all their drugs at once when they saw police.

“They’re not effective, they don’t deter people, and they actually increase harm,” Malins said.

A 2018 parliamentary inquiry into drug law reform found the lack of information meant the effectiveness of sniffer dogs was unclear, and recommended Victoria Police commission an independent evaluation. The Age asked if this was undertaken but did not receive a response.

The newly released figures, following questions from Greens MP Ellen Sandell, provides the closest Victoria has come to gleaning a statewide picture of drug searches as the Greens, Libertarian Party and Legalise Cannabis Party push for greater transparency on the policing tactic.

Victoria Police does not reveal the figures in its annual reports. The force’s term for drug dogs – “passive alert drug detection dogs”, or “PADD” – was not mentioned once in the most recent annual report despite it going into great detail about weapons and graffiti-related searches.

Five slingshots, two laser pointers, three knuckle knives and one cattle prod were among those found in weapons searches without a warrant in 2022-23. Police seized 337 aerosol paint cans and 167 felt pen markers in searches under the Graffiti Prevention Act.

After a six-month wait, Victoria Police last year refused a freedom of information (FOI) request from The Age that asked how many times in 2022 a person was searched because of a dog’s indication where no drugs were found. The request was refused because the data was not centrally recorded.

“There is no centralised holding of information matching the parameters of your request and therefore, no documents meeting the scope of request were able to be located,” the FOI officer said.

NSW deploys sniffer dogs more widely than Victoria, and records more fulsome data that is frequently released in full through the state’s parliament. Of the 6529 searches conducted by NSW Police in 2022, no drugs were found 75 per cent of the time.

Libertarian Party MP David Limbrick has sought comparable data in Victoria for years and in June asked Police Minister Anthony Carbines to ensure searches were clearly reported each year.

Libertarian Party MP David Limbrick has long pushed for transparency on figures on drug searches by police.Credit: AAP

Answering Limbrick’s question on notice, Carbines simply said: “Victoria Police does not publicly report on searches conducted under the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981.”

Limbrick said on Monday that most of the people he saw endure humiliating searches at the 420 rally last April were not carrying anything. The rally was held to support cannabis legalisation. “I am not the slightest bit surprised by figures about failed searches,” Limbrick said.

“I have been calling for a review of sniffer dogs at festivals and music events since 2019, and noted at the time the lack of transparency. Last year I again requested that annual search data be published. It’s starting to look like police are deliberately avoiding scrutiny.”

Aiv Puglielli, the Greens’ drug harm reduction spokesman, said Victorians deserved to know whether sniffer dogs actually worked or whether searches caused more harm.

Greens MP Aiv Puglielli and Legalise Cannabis MP Rachel Payne.Credit: Justin McManus

“Given that Victorian taxpayer dollars are being spent on this controversial drug detection scheme, it is important that we have up-to-date information to prove that this use of funds is effective and will actually keep Victorians safe from drug overdose. If this isn’t the case, then the scheme should be scrapped,” Puglielli said.

“Specifically, how many searches are initiated following a sniffer dog indication, and how many of those searches resulted in the discovery of the possession of drugs?

“If the state government refuses to release this information, we’ll be seeking to use the powers of the parliament to compel the production of these documents.”

Legalise Cannabis MP Rachel Payne said the “just say no” approach to drugs wasn’t working, and that police dogs often unnecessarily put people through traumatic searches while encouraging risky behaviour.

“I think transparency here is key,” Payne said.

Police ministers have released scraps of data in the past through parliament at the request of MPs. Three people were strip searched at the 2020 By the Bay festival, and five people were found to be in the possession of drugs after a dog’s indication.

Nobody was strip searched at the 2019 Listen Out festival. One person at the 2019 Rainbow Serpent Festival was taken to a police station to be strip searched in private.

A state government spokeswoman said these were operational decisions and a matter for Victoria Police.

Nine of the attendees of Hardmission Festival over the weekend were hospitalised.Credit: Wayne Taylor

The mass-overdose over the weekend renewed calls for pill testing from the Victorian Ambulance Union, minor political parties and the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association after four coroners in six years recommended trialling the harm reduction initiative.

Some patients had been released by Monday afternoon, but three remained in a critical condition, two were in a serious condition and one was stable in hospital. The specifics of what happened were yet to be established.

Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos said the news was distressing and thanked paramedics. He said the government was open to “innovative approaches” but had no plans to introduce pill testing.

“Any overdose or adverse health outcome as the result of illegal drugs is tragic, and we send our thoughts to the families and loved ones affected this weekend,” a government spokeswoman said.

Shadow cabinet member David Davis said the opposition did not support pill testing.

The National Alcohol and Other Drugs Hotline: [phone].

Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter here.