More drug tests for police, but same methods
Andrew Clennell
February 13, 2007
MORE than 2200 police a year will be subject to random drug tests including, for the first time, tests for steroids.
The Government decided to more than quadruple the number of officers tested each year following criticism by the Police Integrity Commission. But the Government will not adopt a key recommendation of the commission, that officers have their hair tested - which could show up drug use as long as 90 days before the test. Instead, urine tests, which detect drugs only one to three days after ingestion, will continue to be used.
The commission recommended hair testing partly because the roster system allows officers five to six days off in a row, meaning that drug use at the start of rostered days off would not be detected with urine testing only.
The police union, the Police Association of NSW, opposed blood tests, and the Government has decided not to introduce them.
Two years ago the commission recommended a tougher stance when its Operation Abelia found many cases of recreational drug use in the police force.
The office of the Police Minister, John Watkins, said negotiations with the union and the Ombudsman, and the complexity of the bill, were responsible for the delay in introducing the law. Mr Watkins said yesterday that since September 2001, when random drug testing was introduced, there had been more than 3700 random tests of NSW officers and only two positive results.
But the commission found in 2005 that drug testing was inadequate and that officers from a range of ranks had used drugs including amphetamines, heroin, cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy and steroids. Some were taking advantage of the roster system to use drugs without being detected.
Mr Watkins said RailCorp was satisfied with urine testing of train drivers, and other states' police forces tested urine alone.
Mr Watkins said NSW police were increasing random drug testing of officers from 3 to 15 per cent of the force's operational strength. "This means that instead of 400 to 500 random tests being conducted a year, at least 2250 officers will be tested," he said.
The Opposition police spokesman, Mike Gallacher, doubted that many tests would occur. Questioning why it had taken two years for the legislation to go through, Mr Gallacher said: "They probably had problems with the union in the same way they had problems getting the drug testing through for train drivers."
The Police Association's director of research, Greg Chilvers, said yesterday the union had argued for urine testing only, although it was prepared to accept hair samples. He said some senior police had wanted blood testing as well but the union opposed this.
The issue of drug use by police while off duty was highlighted in 1997 when Roni Levi, a French photographer, was shot dead on Bondi Beach by officers who were later found to have been recreational drug users.
