JUDGMENT 'DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING'

WELLINGTON -- The Police Association says a judgment saying police should
not search people because of their appearance will not affect how officers
operate.

In a landmark written ruling, Judge Phil Gittos found the police breached
the Bill of Rights when they searched Chris Fowlie, president of the
National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml), and
arrested him for possession of a small amount of cannabis.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said yesterday police did not
search people because of how they looked.

"The reality is that police don't search people because of the way they
look, that doesn't happen and never has been justified ... You've got to
have more grounds than the way people look to search them."

Judge Gittos had said the police had no reason to suspect that Mr Fowlie
and a friend were doing anything illegal when Mr Fowlie was arrested on
Karangahape Rd in Auckland at 1.30am last June 17.

The two friends were saying goodbye after meeting for a coffee when they
were approached by two members of a team policing unit.

Constable Karen Hoshek told the court on February 8 that the police were
engaged in a "sweep" of Karangahape Rd to speak to people "to find out what
they are doing".

She said that as she approached Mr Fowlie as a matter of routine she
noticed a strong smell of cannabis.

Judge Gittos said the circumstances left an "uncomfortable perception" that
the police were "engineering opportunities to conduct personal searches of
persons minding their own business in a public street at random or on a
purely speculative basis.

"It needs hardly be said that such conduct would manifestly contravene the
provisions of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act."

Furthermore, the judge criticised the police for using the smell of
cannabis as the sole grounds for searching Fowlie.

The charge against Fowlie, of possessing 0.7g of cannabis, barely enough
for half a joint, was dismissed.

Mr O'Connor said he thought the police were justified searching Mr Fowlie.

"The reality of it is if smelling drugs doesn't give grounds for suspecting
someone's got them, then it's hard to imagine what does.

"However, I suspect the judgment is probably a reflection of how much
(cannabis) was found more than anything else," Mr O'Connor said.

"I suspect that the judge wouldn't have been making the same decision had
the police found a pound of cannabis on him."

Mr O'Connor said he thought the judge's comments would make the police job
a little bit harder but would not change who they searched.

"It really doesn't mean much at all -- it doesn't change anything at all."

A spokeswoman for the police said last night that they would take on board
and respect the judgment and it could lead to a review of how much evidence
was needed to stop and search people.

Don Mathias, an expert in criminal defence law, said the ruling was
significant.

Green MP Nandor Tanczos, Fowlie's business partner in The Hempstore
Aotearoa, hailed the ruling as an important legal finding for civil rights
in New Zealand.

"This ruling is a major challenge to the police practice of targeting and
searching certain members of the public for no good reason and confirms
that police in this country routinely and arbitrarily stop and search
people for no reason other than how they look," he said.

- - NZPA