NEWS: [Mx] 05/03/2004 : Drug sniffers

[swallowthat]

Just a thought that might spark the minds of some... This summer most big dance events in Sydney have had sniffer dogs and have made a big fuss about catching people with drugs, unfortunately we all know this is just publicity and the only people they are busting are the users or the silly people that go to these events to sell a few pills, as we all know the real dealers don't sell drugs in clubs or big parties. So my thought is on the 6th of march Sydney hosted mardi Gras which generates millions of dollars to the economy of Sydney, with thousands of international visitors... The after party which is held after the parade, was sold out this year and i beleive there was 18 000 people at this event, i find it odd that the police and sniffer dogs from operation viking weren't at this event as the Gay community are know for their drug use. My theory is that the goverment doesn't want to upset anything for this event as they make so much money from it. They must be concerned about showing the abuse of civil liberties to all the international vistors, or they might beleive that if they were to start using drug detecting sniffer dogs and they started arresting a big majority of this crowd, the Gay community again would all stand together and fight everyone of these cases through the courts, which is a big possibility as the Gay community are well known for their fighting spirit against the political leaders of this country to change out dated laws, and laws have been changed (we still have a few fights left). Food for thouught......

 

[planet dweller]

After a bit of digging this seems to be the state of play re dogs in Melbourne (however don’t take this as gospel and if anyone has better info don’t hesitate to correct me).

The Victorian police do not appear to have the sort of drug dogs that could be used to detect drugs in a non threatening environment, such as a queue at a night club. The current dogs are large and trained to go after detected drugs in a reasonably aggressive way. That is to get their teeth into the goodies and give them a good shake; this is part of their reward system. Can you imagine the hue and cry that would result from someone having a big strong dog scratching and biting at their pocket trying to tear out the little baggy.

NSW on the other hand has PAD Dogs (Passive Alert Dogs) these dogs are trained to sit next to individuals or items that contain or have contained drugs. To give an indication of the success or not of these dogs the following results are from visitors to NSW's Juvenile Justice Centres

Visitors screened 683
Drug related finds (mainly cannabis) 53
Positive indications (nothing found) 121

Customs probably have more trained dogs than the police as they run a training centre in Canberra, (it supplies dogs for a number organizations, state and federal police, army etc) this centre trains only Labradors.

The little beagles you see at Melbourne airport are trained for agricultural products only (things do change though).

Prahran Police can ask all they want for dogs but it won’t be in the near future unless they get some loaners from up north.

You can be sure however someone is working on it