Anodyne Posted May 21, 2016 (edited) Someone finally did it! The Greens have created a Facebook page for reporting sniffer dog sightings I don't use the bookface, but I gather that you can follow them to receive status updates? Why am I only just learning about this now? Quote Sniff Off: No More Drug Dogs! The Greens NSW are the only major party in NSW that opposes the police use of sniffer dogs for drug detection. The use of dogs is ineffective at catching drug dealers but excellent at violating civil liberties. The Greens NSW work on this issue has been ongoing since 2002. Through questions in Parliament we have gotten the real statistics from police on the effectiveness of drug sniffer dogs in NSW. According to the figures sniffer dogs falsely indicate the presence of drugs 64-72% of the time and a whopping 80% of the time on and around public transport. Despite this, police use sniffer dog indications to conduct intrusive public searches. The sniffer dogs program costs NSW hundreds of thousands of dollars each years, and seriously impacts your right to privacy. On top of that a 2006 ombudsman’s report recommended the immediate end of the program. The Police focus their attention on music festivals, bars, public transport and Redfern. In other words, police target young people, Aboriginal communities and the poor. Most people who are found with drugs are carrying small amounts of cannabis – they are not dealers. After an indication from a drug dog the police can search you, even though they know it is probably false. The police can strip search you if they deem it necessary. Drugs sniffer dogs do not encourage safe drug taking. Two young Australians have died at festivals when they swallowed all of their drugs at once to avoid detection. Sadly, the Labor and Liberal parties support the widespread use of drug sniffer dogs in NSW. The Greens value civil liberties and a sensible drug policy. Join us to campaign against against this discriminatory policing practice. Check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/sniffoff/ Edited May 22, 2016 by Anodyne 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Anodyne Posted May 21, 2016 Ha! Quote Media release: Police were on duty when they lied on Sniff Off May 2, 2016 in Police The Greens have received written confirmation from Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione that all of the police who recently lied about the presence of drug dogs on the Sniff Off Facebook site have been involved in drug dog operations. In a further revelation it was confirmed that two of the police were on duty when they posted the false information. On 29 February and 7 March 2016 a total of three police officers posted false information to the Sniff Off Facebook page regarding the location of drug dogs on the Sydney train network. Despite multiple reports confirming the location of police and dogs at Sydenham Station on February 29 and Liverpool Station on March 7, three people posted that there were no police operations at these stations. Investigations by Sniff Off and Vice revealed that they were likely police officers. This fact has now been confirmed in correspondence received by the Greens Justice Spokesperson David Shoebridge from Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione: 160404 Letter to Commissioner re police on Sniff Off Commissioner Scipione’s correspondence was in reply to a series of questions put to him by the Greens about the affair: 160428 Letter from Police Commissioner re Sniff Off Facebook investigation All three officers were in the Police Transport Command and all had been involved in drug dog operations. The Police Transport Command is the command with the largest growth in drug dog operations in the past three years and is also the command with the worst track record of delivering false positive drug dog indications. In 2014 out of a total of 3,592 searches after a drug dog indication by the Transport Command a staggering 80% or 2,871 were false positives with no drugs being found (source: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/l…) Greens MP and Justice Spokesperson David Shoebridge said: “This is a clear case of the police, while on duty, engaging in grossly inappropriate behavior on social media. “It goes without saying that police should never be telling lies in public, and this is doubly true when they are on duty and being paid by the public. “We know that the police don’t like the fact that Sniff Off is telling the truth about drug dog operations, how they waste police time and are a routine violation of civil liberties. However this does not give police license to log on and lie. “While we welcome Commissioner Scipione’s condemnation of the police conduct there remain a series of questions unanswered. “We still do not know if any of this conduct was known to, or condoned by, senior officers at Transport Command or what is being done to change police culture to prevent this happening again. “The police’s job is to enforce the law and to hopefully do it with the utmost integrity. They are not paid to go on line and lie in an attempt to derail a political discussion about the utility of drug dogs,” Mr Shoebridge said. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yeti101 Posted May 21, 2016 Yep, they're worth following on FB or twitter for the location of drug dog operations. I'm sure some enterprising members can paste updates here, intermittently at least. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SayN Posted May 23, 2016 Is there an "MDT" sightings web page? 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yeti101 Posted May 23, 2016 Now that is something that people would subscribe to. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
