|
"And
now—have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but
over-acuteness of the senses?"
The Tell-Tale Heart
(Edgar Allen Paw)
NEW SOUTH WALES (Aus.) — Behold the perfect
crime: there were no witnesses; all the evidence had been
cleverly stowed—and what sly criminal could possibly be more unassuming
than a 52-year-old grandmother from Woolloomooloo?
But now let's jump ahead to this week's
climactic police bust as reported by Wednesday's Sydney
Morning Herald:
"Carmal Cations [52] had dropped
into a bar on Darlinghurst Road after work for a drink with her husband.
She noticed a dog sniffing around her bag. Seconds later, she was being
searched by police. The sniffer dog, the police said, had identified
drugs on her.
"While patrons looked on, Cations was forced to
empty out the contents of her bag. The officers searched through
everything, even removing the lid of her lip-balm to see whether any
drugs were stored inside the small container."
The police
found no drugs nor any other illegal contraband upon her person. According to Ms. Cations,
the dog had been drawn to her by the scent of chicken schnitzel.
"Villains!" she shrieked, "dissemble no more! I
admit the deed!—it is the reeking of this hideous sausage!" [Writer's embellishment.]
Well, after all, dogs aren't entirely infallible (if they were, they
wouldn't keep falling for the old "fetch-the-invisible-tennis-ball
trick"). The fact of the matter is, as former local police area commander Chief Donald Graham puts
it,
"We don't know at this stage how effective the dogs are because
[the use of drug dogs in NSW] is in its relative infancy."
The NSW Police have been using sniffer
dogs for about 15 months, employing a total of 14 police pooches which
cost
around $100,000 AUS ($52,000 US) each. But the use of dogs has drawn an enormous amount
of criticism in recent months from NSW civil libertarians. The Herald reports that the NSW Council for Civil Liberties has received 750
complaints about the dogs in the past three months.
"Innocent people have a lot to worry about because this attacks
their right to walk down to the shops and not be confronted by police,"
says Peter Zahra, the acting chief public defender for NSW. |
From the 1966 Classic starring
Don Knotts; the digitally-superimposed gate-crasher in the lower left corner is Theresa,
a 2-year-old Chihuahua currently residing at the Burwood Pound just
outside of Sydney, Australia. Click
here if you would like to adopt/foster Theresa or any of her
canine friends down under, sponsored by Pound
Animal Welfare Scheme (PAWS).
Others
have complained that the use of drug dogs constitutes an unlawful
search. The Herald reports that on October 31, the deputy
chief magistrate at the Downing Centre Local Court, Mary Jerram, noted
that under the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act, police could not search
people without reasonable suspicion.
In
the case against Glen Darby, a 21-year-old eastern suburbs student who
was arrested for having possession of cannabis, Jerram ruled that by
using sniffer dogs, police were searching people without probable cause.
The
police have since appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the dogs
cannot possibly be engaged in anything that can be defined as a formal
search. Says Sean Condon, senior police prosecutor at the Penrith
Juvenile Court, "The dog isn't using its paws and scrabbling around
in people's pockets."
Even so, it may be wise next time for
officers to obtain a sniff warrant first.
(Photo: Sydney
Morning Herald)
Three NSW Police sniffer dogs bear
a striking resemblance to legendary gumshoes Joe Friday, Frank Smith and
Bill Gannon from TV's Dragnet.
"Just the facts, mutts."
§§§
Headlines
Prev  Next
|
