Thursday, September 14, 2006

What the Ombudsman says about sniffer dogs

The NSW Ombudman's report into sniffer dogs has finally been tabled (see posts below). Guess what -- these dog operations are 99% ineffective, just an expensive sham. From a press release by Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon:

“The report revealed there is no evidence that drug detection dogs disrupted low level street dealing, had no deterrent effect on drug users and did not reduce drug related crime.

“Given that over 99 per cent of all sniffer dog searches did not result in a prosecution, the Ombudsman should have recommended that the extended search powers be scrapped.

“The report reveals that the dog related costs of a two day sniffer dog operation at the 2004 Big Day out was $41,000.

“Of the 414 people searched, only one person was successfully prosecuted - a young boy who was fined $1,000 for supplying drugs to his girlfriend.

“Almost all convictions involved people supplying small quantities of drugs to their friends, while big drug dealers and manufacturers have got off scot-free."

Welcome to Kings Cross.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish you would stop clouding this issue with facts, Michael.

The Editor said...

Today the government said that despite the 99% failure rate the dogs were 'a useful tool for police' and would be staying.

A useful tool alright -- for their campaign of 'social cleansing' which seems to be the only real result of their activities.