Pubdate: Sat, 22 Dec 2001 Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Copyright: 2001 The Sydney Morning Herald Contact: http://www.smh.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441 Author: David Marr IF THE SMELL FOLLOWS YOU EVERYWHERE, YOU WON'T BE ALONE No sniffer dogs came through Bob Carr's Christmas drinks on Tuesday. The night was young and the town with all its pleasures lay before us, but while we drank beer on the 41st floor of the Governor Phillip Tower, no beagles would sniff us, no cops would order us to turn out our pockets or strip to our underpants to be searched for drugs - though to be fair, that last humiliation seems reserved for black kids in the streets of towns out west. NSW is now the state of the sniffer dog. Off the tops of their heads, Labor advisers can't think of another place in the world where drug dogs and their police handlers roam the community without warrants. At airports and prisons, yes, but not in pubs, clubs, railway stations, grandstands and buses as they do now in NSW. After the Olympics, good homes could have been found for these expensive animals. They might have settled down as loved pets and valued companions. Instead, a new market was found for their talents. The rhetoric is all about catching drug dealers; the reality is all about pulling in users. They do. The stats are a dream. Don't believe anyone who tells you these dogs aren't very good. Sure, from time to time they detect Oxo cubes and chicken burgers, but they can sniff out tiny quantities of hard drugs. Smelly old cannabis is child's play for a puppy. Dope is also, of course, the drug 40 per cent of Australians use every year. Air your clothes well after a party. Redfern Legal Centre is warning the public that a jacket worn at a party where dope is smoked can earn you an embarrassing public encounter with a dog and handler. This is the routine. You're standing on Wynyard Station at peak hour, or the dance floor at DCM in Oxford Street, and the sniffer dog bunts - touches you with its nose - or stops and sits before you. The police handler then says words to this effect: "This is a drug-detecting dog. We have reason to believe you may have drugs in your possession." You are then directed to turn out your pockets, your bag, take off your shirt, etc, and be searched. All in public. A NSW Labor staffer was caught by a sniffer dog at Wynyard a couple of months ago. He had a small amount of marijuana in his pocket and spent some hours in police cells. He works for a Government with a policy of keeping users of trivial amounts of dope out of the slammer. Didn't work. Not with the dogs around. In October, the Deputy Chief Magistrate in the Local Court declared the dogs were breaching Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: "No-one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks." To overturn this pesky decision, Labor and the Coalition combined in Macquarie Street in December to pass the Police Powers (Drug Detection Dog) Act. Only the Democrats and Greens voted against this bill. There was loads of skylarking in the debate. The Hon John Jobling (Liberal): "The dogs are highly skilled and highly trained." The Hon Michael Costa (Minister for Police): "And they are cute." Jobling: "They are much more handsome than the Minister for Police." Ba-boom. The bill becomes law on New Year's Day. The Attorney-General, Bob Debus, is proud of its civil liberties provisions. Dogs can continue to sniff in licensed nightclubs, bars, parades and festivals but will need a warrant to sniff in restaurants. Cocaine heads out on the town on Friday nights take note: stick to restaurants. All elections in NSW are law and order elections. God knows what bizarre and cruel laws will be passed in the next 15 months before the state goes to the polls. There is no doubt the dogs work. But no-one in the law and order brigade asks the only question that matters: are they worth it? - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom