Surprise, Surprise! Sniffer Dogs Are Still Wildly Ineffective
"Increasingly people are seeing the war on drugs for what it is: a war on young and marginalised people."
It is not exactly breaking news that drug sniffer dogs don’t work — after all, way back in 2011 a report found that sniffer dogs get it wrong a staggering 80 percent of the time.
But a new report proves that the dogs don’t work in new, unique, hitherto unexpected ways. Not only are they ineffective at actually sniffing out drugs, they’re also ineffective at getting to the root of illegal drug use — prosecuting dealers.
As 10 Daily have reported, a new study published by Dr. Caitlin Hughes — a Research Fellow at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre — suggests that sniffer programs are useful only in picking up drug buyers with small amounts of illegal substances on them: 87 percent of all sniffer dog-related incidents involve buyers rather than dealers.
me: oh shit here comes a drug dog be cool
drug dog: hey you kids look cool, have some drugs
me: thank you drug dog!
— to aaron is human (@humanaaron) February 19, 2019
Indeed, over a ten-year period, from 2008 to 2018, a mere 4.8 percent of incidents resulted in the detection of a supplier — which means sniffer dogs are a whopping 18 times more likely to pick up people carrying small amounts of pot or ecstasy. And as Dr. Hughes has pointed out in an opinion piece posted to The Conversation, such drugs are the “least harmful” of them all.
It’s not exactly hard to figure out why the program is so ineffective when it comes to nabbing dealers. As Dr. Hughes points out in The Conversation, most dogs are stationed in public places like bars and on public transport. But the majority of drug deals happen in residential areas, indoors, away from the prying eyes of the police.
How come the sniffer dogs never go to the races? #NSWPol
— MW (@MWChatShow) February 20, 2019
David Shoebridge, a parliamentary member for the Greens who has long campaigned against sniffer dogs and started the wildly popular Sniff Off Facebook page, told Junkee the new report is more proof that the use of drug detection dogs is “all about PR, about the police being seen to do something on the failing war on drugs.”
He points out that “any other government program that gets it wrong three quarters of the time would be immediately halted …The police drug dog program is designed [so] low-level users at public events are harassed and humiliated while nothing effective is being done to stem drug supply.
“It’s pretty obvious that sending drug dogs to train stations isn’t going to catch the big dealers. As far as I know drug dealers don’t transport large quantities of drugs around using an Opal card.
“The drug dog regime does not target high-level drug dealers or suppliers. It targets young people, the poor and Aboriginal communities. Increasingly people are seeing the war on drugs for what it is: a war on young and marginalised people.”
For our guide to your rights when stopped by a sniffer dog, head here.