NSW Health has warned unusually strong ecstasy pills are in circulation ahead of the long weekend.
The failure of sniffer dogs came as the LECC review identified a number of shortcomings in the way NSW Police documented and followed initiatives in relation to strip-searches.
The initiatives were agreed to by NSW Police after a 2020 report from LECC outlined broad problems with strip-search record-keeping standards and compliance with legal thresholds required to justify searches.
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But three years later,many of the problems remained.
Of the 359 police records relating to 83 general searches and 77 strip-searches,LECC found only 35 per cent of those records were “clear,complete and consistent to the standard required”,while only 27 per cent contained information regarding whether police followed strip-search rules.
The problems were compounded by a failure to complete mandatory Music Festivals Fundamentals training. The review found 47 per cent of officers did not complete it within the required time frame,and 28 per cent had not completed it whatsoever.
“This review highlights that training and policies are not enough to change conduct. It is critical that new processes are effectively communicated to all police officers and reinforced with proper supervision on the ground,” the LECC review stated.
A NSW Police spokeswoman said drug detection dogs were “very effective” with the “majority” of searches from canine indication resulting “in either drugs being located,or the person admitting recent contact with illegal drugs,which proves the effectiveness”.
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NSW Police was taking steps to “rectify the gaps in training and knowledge” identified in the LECC review,including “re-issuing the Music Festivals Guidelines to all officers in the field”.
Faehrmann said the findings from the LECC review were “outrageous”,saying it demonstrated NSW Police had no concern for the standards required for undertaking a strip-search.
“Without adequate records of why or how searches are being conducted,I can only assume most are being undertaken illegally and baselessly and nothing has changed,” she said.
NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann obtained the data relating to drug-detection dogs via the parliament.Credit:Dion Georgopoulos
Last week the Labor government cameunder fire for failing to include funding for the promised drug summit in the September budget.
The omission was criticised by Professor Dan Howard,SC,who led the ice inquiry. He blasted the government for perpetuating the state’s “long-standing drug policy vacuum”.
Premier Chris Minns has declined to say when the summit will be held,only that it will go ahead within the government’s first term of parliament.
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