POLICE DOGS SNIFF OUT POT ON FERRIES

Search of Car Decks Leads to Arrests, Marijuana Seizures

Police have started using drug-sniffing dogs on B.C. Ferries to root out
people transporting illicit narcotics.

A civil liberties watchdog is condemning the action, saying it's an abuse
of police power to randomly sniff out drugs among passengers on public
ferries without a search warrant.

West Vancouver police revealed Wednesday that Operation High Seas had led
to three arrests and the seizure of seven kilograms of marijuana.

A dozen plainclothes officers on Tuesday sealed off the car decks on four
return trips between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo.

West Vancouver police Sgt. Bob Fontaine said the five drug-sniffing dogs,
which came from detachments around the Lower Mainland, detected the drugs
from outside the cars.

Police waited for owners to return to their cars before making an arrest
for possession of narcotics, searching the cars and seizing the drugs.

"Nobody even knew we were there," Fontaine said. "They're all upstairs, and
we're down on the car decks."

"It was the most non-invasive way of trying to detect any drugs on the
ferry. I think you might see this will happen again in the future."

Fontaine said criminals are using B.C. Ferries vessels to transport drugs
through Horseshoe Bay.

The marijuana is probably coming from numerous grow-ops on Vancouver
Island, as well as from ships on the west coast of the Island, he said.

John Dixon, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said police
have invaded the privacy of passengers.

"They have no business trolling around prospectively on the ferries unless
they have good and reasonable, probable grounds that a specific criminal
offence is being committed," said Dixon.

"If you can't find anything else for police officers to do than ride around
on the ferries, on the hope of busting somebody for having some dope in
their car, then West Vancouver obviously needs fewer police officers.

"It's a completely unreasonable use of what we are told is scarce police
resources."

A 43-year-old man and 30-year-old woman from Lasquiti Island are facing
drug trafficking charges, along with a 37-year-old man from Lantzville.

Police seized small amounts of marijuana from five other people, but didn't
charge them.

Fontaine confirmed that police did not have a search warrant. However,
Fontaine said the police had reasonable and probable grounds to board the
ferry.

"Our grounds would be that we've stopped numerous people coming from the
ferries, we've had large seizures from the ferries, and we've also received
information in the past that drugs are being transported on that ferry,"
Fontaine said.

Once police boarded the ferry, reasonable and probable grounds to check
vehicles were established by the drug-sniffing dogs.

"In a case like this, the dog itself will indicate that there is some drug
in a vehicle. A person is arrested with the grounds used. We'd use our dogs
as the grounds," he said.

Fontaine said this is the first time West Vancouver police have done a
large-scale drug search on a ferry. More searches may be done in the future
"on a sporadic basis, not a regular one."

He said police did not choose Tuesday for any reason, only that they were
able to divert enough manpower for that day to conduct the search.

Fontaine said police had B.C. Ferries' permission to board the ship.

A spokeswoman for B.C. Ferries confirmed the corporation received notice
from police about their plan to board a ferry to search for drugs. "B.C.
Ferries works and cooperates fully with any police detachment, whatever the
detachment might be," said communications co-ordinator Deborah Dykes.

Officers from five police agencies were involved in the search, spearheaded
by the West Vancouver police. They included two officers from New
Westminster city police, one from Vancouver city police, a Canada
Corrections officer, and one officer from Vancouver International Airport
RCMP. The remaining officers came from the West Vancouver Police Department.

Dixon said that regardless of the police officers' explanations, he feels
they are wrong in their belief that they can board a ferry without looking
for a specific person.

"If the police are going to begin travelling on the ferries and running up
and down the rows of cars sniffing for drugs, that seems to me to be an
unreasonable infringement of privacy," he said.

"I don't believe that the police have reasonable and probable cause to
believe that criminal activity is being committed by specific individuals
on that ferry."