Drug dogs on the beat
MERYL NAIDOO
June 04, 2008 12:00am
DRUG sniffer dogs will be on the beat in Tasmania within months.
Two specially trained labradors will take to the streets targeting licensed premises, entertainment venues and public events.
The dogs are trained to detect cannabis, cocaine, heroin, amphetamine and ecstasy.
The dogs, Yuli and Flicka, sniffed around the ankles of late-night revellers during a visit to Hobart's waterfront at the weekend.
Tasmania Police said the outing was part of a socialisation training exercise for what will become routine police work.
The dogs and handlers patrolled waterfront and city streets and Salamanca Place around midnight on Friday.
Insp Stuart Scott of the Public Order Response Team said the dogs were fairly advanced in training although not yet operational.
In the past, police had to use Australian Customs dogs for drug searches.
"For the first time, Tasmania Police will have its own highly trained drug-detection dogs to crack down on illicit drugs," Police Minister Jim Cox said last month."For people hiding drugs, these dogs are their worst nightmare."
He said the dogs would be used "wherever officers require".
Four Tasmanian police officers completed the six-week course with four labradors through a partnership with South Australia Police last month.
The new drug dogs, which cost $5000 each, boost Tasmania Police's new dog handling unit which has two explosive-detection dogs.
Officer in charge of the unit is Insp Glen Ball.
Mr Cox said dogs would assist police during the execution of search warrants.
It is understood they are trained to sit next to a source to indicate the possible presence of illicit drugs, providing reasonable suspicion to allow a police officer to conduct a more thorough search.
One dog will be based in the North and the other in the South but they will provide coverage statewide when required.
Mr Cox said it showed the State Government's commitment to ensuring Tasmania remained the safest state in the country by having a resource that could assist in detecting illicit drugs.
I'm sure training these dogs for the blind would be a much better use of resources.