Ineffective drug dogs could cost hundreds of thousands a year, Greens say

Sniffer dogs at music festivals could be costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year but fewer than 2% of people searched are charged with drug-dealing offences.

Data compiled by the New South Wales Greens suggest festivalgoers and taxpayers could be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for drug dogs to patrol at music festivals, despite criticism that the system has a low success rate and doesn’t discourage people from using drugs.

Using a combination of police cost recovery data and operating guidelines, the Greens say the cost of three drug dogs at a music festival would be $6,006 an hour, or $36,000 for six hours. If drug dog operations were run at 20 festivals a year, the cost would reach $720,828.

The Greens justice spokesman, David Shoebridge, long a critic of the use of drug dogs, said the operations “mostly catch people carrying only small amounts of drugs” and that they have “little to no impact on the availability and consumptions of drugs”.

“Every time you see a dog at a festival that’s $2,000 per hour … for a dog who will 60 to 80% of the time sniff out someone who is not carrying any drugs,” he said.

“$36,000 per festival to encourage people to take all their drugs at once, in advance, use drugs thought to be less detectable or just buy drugs inside the venue.”

The Greens worked out the cost by using commercial cost recovery data and police operating guidelines.

Police and drug dogs in NSW are used for “commercial purposes” at a cost-recovery rate of $152.20 and $23.70 an hour for officers and drug dogs respectively.

Standard operation procedures for drug dog detection unit operations recommend between 10 and 12 officers should accompany a dog and handler at “dance party operations”.

But the question of who bears the cost is unclear and can depend on the size of the event.

Before music festivals, police decide whether it’s necessary for extra police to patrol the event. If they decide it is, then festival organisers build the cost into the price of tickets. But it differs depending on the festival, and some events could be charged to the public.

Harm reduction advocates are highly critical of the drug dog program and concerns remain around its effectiveness.

Figures provided to the NSW parliament after questions from Shoebridge reveal that while 9,380 people were searched as part of drug dog operations in the 12 months to the end of August, only 162 people, or 1.7% of those searched, were charged with drug-dealing offences.

Police said 2,378 charges had been laid as a result of drug dog operations in the same 12-month period.

In 2006 the NSW ombudsman found that 73% of people identified by the dogs are not carrying drugs.

Last year figures provided to the NSW parliament revealed police spent an average of $9,420,416.57 a year on the cost of maintaining the police detection dog unit.

But that figure – provided to Shoebridge in response to questions on notice – only covers the unit’s upkeep, training and operational costs, which he says underestimates the true cost of drug dog operations.

But the NSW police minister, Troy Grant, said the government “makes no apology for using drug detection dogs to send a message to the community that we do not condone illicit drug use or trafficking”.

He said drug dogs “have a strong deterrence factor” and that drugs seized by the police as a result of detections “will not go on to be consumed and potentially cause serious injury or death”.

“Drug detection dogs are just one strategy employed by police to assist in the detection of prohibited drugs,” he said.