Thursday, 4 May 2023

Victoria Police sniffer dogs

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (22:27): (195) My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Police. Earlier this week I asked a question about reporting on drug searches and particularly searches including the use of sniffer dogs. The response indicated that, contrary to my assumption and the assumption of many activists and legal advocates familiar with this policy area, search statistics related to sniffer dog initiated searches do appear in the Victoria Police annual report. I actually think it is worse if they are. From my staff’s reading of the Victoria Police annual report for 2021–22it is not clear which statistics the minister’s response refers to. If it is page 45 of the 2021–22 annual report, surely this must be referring to the 1184 searches without warrant listed as being conducted under section 10 or section 10AA of the Control of Weapons Act 1990. But that would mean that these search numbers are inaccurate, because illicit drug searches are not conducted under the powers of this act. Perhaps it is referring to page 49 of the annual report, where 198 searches were conducted under section 13 of the Graffiti Prevention Act 2007, but this would also misrepresent these searches.

Back in 2019 I introduced a motion calling on the government to review the use of sniffer dogs in drug-detection activity. Ms Taylor was the lead speaker from the government at the time, and she stated:

Section 82 of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 provides that a police officer may, without a warrant, search a person in a public place if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that a person is in possession of a drug of dependence in respect of which an offence has been committed or is reasonably suspected to have been committed. The PADD dogs support police members to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that a patron entering a music festival is in possession of an illicit drug …

But in the Victoria Police annual report there is no reference to searches conducted under section 82 of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act. In short, what this means is that if, as the minister has indicated, searches under this act are in fact recorded in the Victoria Police annual report, they are misrepresented. The figures contain errors. Put another way: it is dishonest. My request for the minister is to work with Victoria Police to make whatever changes are necessary to the law enforcement assistance program system and reporting guidelines to ensure that future Victoria Police reports clearly indicate the number of searches conducted under section 82 of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act in a similar format to other search statistics.