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

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
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