Barely a sniff of trouble, so Greens say it's time to call off the dogs

Anna Patty | SMH | 9 July 2011

POLICE sniffer dogs are only identifying drugs or weapons in a small minority of searches in which they are used.

Government figures supplied to the Greens in response to questions on notice show that last year sniffer dogs were involved in 551 searches for firearms or explosives, which identified only five positive cases.

Of the 15,779 searches for illegal drugs, 5087 identified them.

A NSW Greens MP, David Shoebridge, who obtained the figures from the state government, said sniffer dogs had been a ''clear failure'' and ''should be stopped immediately''.

''These figures prove that sniffer dogs are a waste of police resources and the government must commit to an immediate review of their use,'' Mr Shoebridge said.

''When intrusive weapons searches using sniffer dogs have a failure rating of more than 99 per cent, they are more [of] a hindrance to policing than a help.

''In more than two thirds of drug searches involving sniffer dogs, the police are finding no drugs at all.''

Mr Shoebridge said the police drug detection dog unit, consisting of 14 dogs, cost $868,037.39 in the 2002-03 financial year.

''If we assume the same costs applied in the 2003-04 financial year, then each successful supply prosecution in this period cost over $90,000 in drug detection dog costs. Most of these were for small amounts of drugs,'' Mr Shoebridge said. He said he was concerned that police may be subject to civil claims for the intrusive searches ''when the basis on which they are undertaking them is so statistically poor''.

''This has meant that thousands of NSW citizens, mainly young people out enjoying themselves, have been subject to police searches with little legitimate basis,'' he said.

The secretary for the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Stephen Blanks, said the use of sniffer dogs infringed people's civil liberties and could only be justified if they resulted in a high rate of successful detections.

Don Weatherburn, the director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, said the high number of searches relative to detections was not an indication of failure in the context of deterrence.

''The question is how many people would carry drugs if not for sniffer dogs,'' Dr Weatherburn said.

''We don't have any statistics on that.''

The president of the NSW Police Association, Scott Weber, said the police dogs were an ''extremely valuable resource'' in preventing crime.

''They stop people taking drugs into large venues such as the Big Day Out,'' Mr Weber said. ''It is hard to get tangible results of that success.

''Even if they detected one firearm or detected one drug dealer, that is protecting the community and saving lives.

''The cost of losing one life is worth more than the cost of having a sniffer dog.''

Detective Inspector Chris Condon from the NSW Police dog unit said the number of drug dog searches included all search warrants, property, motor vehicle and personal searches.

The number of firearms and explosive searches also includes all search warrants as well as hotel and other building and property clearances. He said the detection dogs were ''extremely accurate - approaching 100 per cent accuracy''.

''In the case of firearms and explosive searches, there have been no false positives,'' Detective Inspector Condon said.

''In the case of drugs, the animals even have the ability to detect the residue of prohibited drugs on people who have previously been in possession of them.

''The dogs have a strong deterrence factor: they not only lead to the seizure of drugs from dealers and users, but people also dump their drugs when they see the dogs.''