Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 - NSW ...

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Table 16. Organising, assisting or conducting drug premises (first offence) in Cabramatta, court results Court Outcome Number Conviction 3 Filed in Court 1 Form 1 1 Dismissed 1 Withdrawn 1 Total Number of Defendants 7 Source: Local court transcripts. Five of the seven people who were charged with this offence pleaded not guilty, and two pleaded guilty. All three defendants who were convicted of organising, conducting or assisting in organising or conducting drug premises, received custodial sentences. One person received an eight month term of imprisonment, and two defendants were each sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. 7.7.4. Allow premises to be used as drug premises We examined 15 court proceedings relating to people who were charged with allowing their premises to be used as drug premises in Cabramatta. Table 17. Allowing premises to be used as drug premises (first offence) in Cabramatta, court results Court Outcome Number Conviction 8 Filed in Court 1 Form 1 1 Dismissed 3 Withdrawn 2 Total Number of Defendants 15 Source: Local court transcripts. Of these 15 people, five pleaded guilty, eight pleaded not guilty, and two people did not enter a plea. Five of the eight people who were convicted of allowing their premises to be used as drug premises received a term of imprisonment. Three people received the maximum penalty of 12 months imprisonment, one person received six months, and another, three months imprisonment. A further three people who were convicted received bonds. Two defendants received a three year bond, and one received a 12 month bond. 126 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001
7.8. Conclusion: Impact of the Drug Premises Act on the drug trade in Cabramatta 7.8.1. Concerns about the use of the legislation in Cabramatta One of the concerns raised about the Act in parliamentary debate was that the use of drug premises legislation in Cabramatta could harden the target and cause the illicit drug trade in the area to become more organised and professional. 673 It was feared that drug market participants may develop new modus operandi to avoid the impact of the new legislation. Another common impact of intensive drug law enforcement in one area is the displacement of the drug trade to neighbouring localities. 674 During parliamentary debate on the Act, one member of the Legislative Council said that a previous police blitz to get rid of the drug problem in Cabramatta did get rid of the problem for a while, but the drug trade moved to other areas. 675 These concerns arose from the knowledge that illicit drug markets are often able to adapt to the strategies put in place to police them. One academic has argued that probably “the most serious impediment to effective enforcement is the remarkable regenerative quality of most illicit drug markets”. 676 The ambit of this review, and the length of time we have to conduct it, have limited our ability to assess the broader, or longer-term impact of this law. The displacement of the drug trade is one phenomenon that may only become clearly evident over time. It is also important to note, that although the nature of the illicit drug market in Cabramatta appears to be changing, it is not possible to isolate the cause of this change in terms of individual legislative instruments like the Drug Premises Act or policing strategies. Police in Cabramatta also use other strategies and legislative tools to deal with the illicit drug trade in the area, such as regular operations that involve the use of street-level police operatives who conduct controlled drug buys from street dealers. 677 It is beyond the scope of this review to isolate the impact of these various, and sometimes overlapping, drug law enforcement strategies on the illicit drug trade. At the end of this report, we discuss the overall impact that the Drug Premises Act appears to have had on the drug trade in Cabramatta, and consider issues such as whether the drug trade appears to have been displaced to other areas. In this section, we will consider evidence that specifically relates to the impact of the Drug Premises Act on drug premises. 7.8.2. Increased transience of drug houses Police in Cabramatta have informed us that the drug houses in the area have become more ephemeral. In late 2002, a former Crime Manager from Cabramatta LAC had observed that drug houses tended to operate for limited periods of time, shut down, and move elsewhere. 678 In the focus group that we conducted in July 2003, Cabramatta police we spoke to made the same observation. One officer said: What they do now, what I’ve found, … they don’t operate for long periods, like they might operate for a week or two. By the time we get a call from the public, and we start doing a bit of observation of the place, they’ve shut down. They pop up somewhere else, and you’ll have to start all over again. Whereas three years ago, they just kept going until they got busted, they didn’t care. 679 A senior officer from Cabramatta reported similar difficulties, describing the situation as a “cat and mouse game”. 680 This officer said “by the time we get the evidence that we require” to get a search warrant for the drug premises it is too late, “they have shut down and moved somewhere else”. 681 A detective from Cabramatta also told us that some drug premises only operate for a short time, specific hours, or they will only sell drugs to people they know, so it is difficult for police to conduct undercover drug buys from the premises. This officer also noted that a “lot of phone dealers have closed their book on who they deal to”. 682 673 Hon. R. Jones, NSWPD, 7 June 2001, p. 14630. 674 Hon I. Cohen, NSWPD 7 June 2001, p. 14633 and Ms C. Moore, NSWPD, 6 June 2001, p. 14507. Ms Moore noted that a “severe crackdown on the existing drug trade could result in similar outlets appearing in my electorate.” 675 Hon. I. Cohen, NSWPD, 7 June 2001, p. 14633. 676 Grant Wardlaw, quoted in P. Green and I. Purnell, Measuring the success of law enforcement agencies in targeting major drug offenders relative to minor drug offenders, National Police Research Unit, Adelaide, 1995, p. 6. 677 These operations are conducted under the authority of the Law Enforcement (Controlled Operations) Act 1997. 678 Interview, former crime manager, Cabramatta LAC, 28 June 2002. 679 Focus group, Cabramatta police, 2 July 2003. 680 Personal communication, Senior Officer, Cabramatta LAC, 1 August 2003. 681 Ibid. 682 Focus group, Cabramatta police, 2 July 2003. NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 127
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Review of the Police Powers (Drug P
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Contents Preface ..................
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Chapter 11. Drug move-on powers in
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Acknowledgements This report was re
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Part One. Background. Chapter 1. In
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Drug offences, unlike for example,
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elieve is in a public place with th
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Chapter 2. Methodology In this chap
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2.3.5. Health data NSP distribution
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As the table indicates, more than o
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2.4.7. Complaints The NSW Ombudsman
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NSW Police advised us that calculat
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Another data limitation is that COP
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Chapter 3. Legislative survey This
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Once police have entered the suspec
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The table below sets out the penalt
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(c) that the nature and extent of t
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The Act contains four additional in
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A fortification removal notice is r
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For example, section 39(3) of the Q
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Part Two. Drug premises Chapter 4.
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In the police training manual on th
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Case study 2. Drug premises search
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4.2.4. Presenting the application b
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A Crime Manager we interviewed from
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applications. In this Act, an inves
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Chapter 5. The definition of drug p
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5.2. Recommendation That Parliament
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5.5.2. Section 11(2)(b): fortificat
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In our chapter on Cabramatta, we di
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The woman was found guilty of allow
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5.5.5. Means or devices for drug us
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Number of Premises Figure 7. Razor
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However, no other evidence of drug
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• magnum revolver and a 0.357 mag
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5.5.8. Section 11(2)(g): large amou
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The magistrate noted that there wer
Page 75 and 76: In relation to the money located on
Page 77 and 78: 5.7.6. Cars as drug premises As we
Page 79 and 80: … rather than being on the edge o
Page 81 and 82: Chapter 6. The Drug Premises Act -
Page 83 and 84: • the offence of being found on,
Page 85 and 86: With reverse onus, we didn’t have
Page 87 and 88: In the following section, we will d
Page 89 and 90: Officers from the State Crime Comma
Page 91 and 92: The second reading speech, which gi
Page 93 and 94: In the granny flat, police found ca
Page 95 and 96: Table 6. Pleas entered and court ou
Page 97 and 98: The magistrate said that he had a r
Page 99 and 100: 13. Allowing use of premises as dru
Page 101 and 102: The defendant says he was not there
Page 103 and 104: Figure 13: Ages of people charged w
Page 105 and 106: Table 12. Number of charges for var
Page 107 and 108: Chapter 7. Cabramatta 7.1. Introduc
Page 109 and 110: No. of Drug Premises Figure 14: Num
Page 111 and 112: Table 13. Information about drug pr
Page 113 and 114: It should be clear that this legisl
Page 115 and 116: The unit was in disarray, with spar
Page 117 and 118: 7.5. Level of drug supply the law i
Page 119 and 120: 7.5.3 Firearms, weapons and high le
Page 121 and 122: 7.6. Charges laid under the Drug Pr
Page 123 and 124: 7.6.4. Young Asian people and drug
Page 125: Of these 52 people, 31 people pled
Page 129 and 130: By way of comment, the continuing a
Page 131 and 132: Chapter 8. Targeting drug supply Pa
Page 133 and 134: Table 18. Drug Misuse and Trafficki
Page 135 and 136: Low level drug suppliers are more l
Page 137 and 138: Other forms of organisation in evid
Page 139 and 140: Table 19. Drugs Located, State-wide
Page 141 and 142: Table 23. Drugs located, Northern R
Page 143 and 144: However, the submission concluded b
Page 145 and 146: To begin with, telephone intercepts
Page 147 and 148: The prohibited drugs that were loca
Page 149 and 150: One factor that appears to have per
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