SNIFFER DOGS BARKING UP WRONG TREE: REPORT

THE drug sniffer dog program is an expensive waste of money that
fails to catch serious drug dealers but manages to embarrass
thousands doing nothing wrong, a NSW Ombudsman investigation has found.

The Government believes the dogs interrupt the supply of illegal
drugs, but the two-year investigation found they stop three times as
many people who are not carrying drugs as those who are.

During the study, 10,211 people were stopped at train stations, in
pubs and on streets - but only a quarter of those searched were
carrying illegal drugs.

Almost all of those were carrying cannabis, and mostly in small
amounts, with cocaine and heroin discovered on fewer occasions than
prescription drugs.

The Drug Detection Dog Unit cost $870,000 in 2002-03, but over the
study period, just 19 people were convicted for supplying drugs. Most
of those were carrying drugs for their friends rather than for sale,
the report found, with only three sentenced to periodic detention.

The Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, made 55 recommendations to improve the
effectiveness of the program, but questioned the worth of keeping the
enabling laws at all.

"Despite the best efforts of police, the evidence suggests that there
is little value in trying to identify drug dealers by screening
people with drug detection dogs in public places," he said.

However, the acting police minister, David Campbell, said sniffer
dogs were an effective deterrent that saved lives and interrupted the
supply of drugs.

The 19 convictions for supply was an "entirely satisfactory outcome", he said.