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

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8.5.11.2. Inner Metropolitan Region Quantities of money were located on 11 of the 16 identified drug premises in the Inner Metropolitan Region. The quantities of money found ranged from $80 to $5190. On six of these 11 premises, the quantity of money found was roughly $1200. 8.5.11.3. Western Region In one incident in the Western Region, $645 was located, and in another, $1000 was located. According to event narratives and documents examined, no money was located on the remaining identified drug premises in this region. 8.5.11.4. Northern Region Money was located on 3 of the 8 identified drug premises in the Northern Region, $15,780 on one premises, and $395 and $705 on two others. 8.5.11.5. Southern Region Police note that they found a total of $1,518.75 in several defendants on one identified drug premises in the Southern Region. Police do not note any money finds in event narratives that relate to the other 11 identified drug premises in this region. 8.6. State Crime Command use of the Drug Premises Act In NSW Police, specialist drug law enforcement is the province of the State Crime Command Drug Squad. 779 While all operational police in NSW are responsible for drug law enforcement, 780 the Drug Squad is tasked to focus on the more complex and serious cases in this area of law enforcement. The Drug Squad was established in early September 2002 when the State Crime Command was formed. 781 The Drug Squad is responsible for providing strategic direction for NSW Police in response to illicit drug crime at all levels. 782 The Drug Squad also provides support and assistance in drug investigations that are conducted by LACs. 783 In this section, we will examine the uses of the Act by the State Crime Command. We will discuss instances in which charges under the Drug Premises Act were laid in investigations where the State Crime Command played a major role. 8.6.1. Frequency of the use of the Drug Premises Act by State Crime Command State Crime Command laid charges under the Drug Premises Act in operations involving 17 drug premises over the review period. 784 On one occasion, Special Crime and Internal Affairs (SCIA) also laid charges under the Drug Premises Act in connection with a drug investigation. In total, the Drug Premises Act was used on 18 occasions by agencies with a specialist law enforcement role. Most of these 18 uses of the Act involved the Drug Squad, or other units within the State Crime Command, like the South East Asian Crime Squad, that have a specialist drug law enforcement role. According to a submission to our discussion paper from the Drug Squad, the Drug Premises Act has “not played a significant role in Drug Squad strategies targeting high level drug supply”. 785 The Drug Squad submission stated: The methodology employed by Drug Squad typically involves varying levels of covert electronic and physical surveillance targeting a range of manufacture, cultivation, distribution and supply locations. This legislation has not been used frequently due to the majority of our targets being involved in mid to upper level distribution. 786 779 Other squads in State Crime Command are also involved in drug law enforcement. The South East Asian Crime Squad, for example, investigates “major and organised” crime involving South East Asian communities, and their work may also involve investigating drug importation and distribution. Police Weekly Vol 14, No 45, 18 November 2002. 780 Interview, Commander, Drug Squad, 30 September 2003. 781 This Command was formerly known as “Crime Agencies”. Prior to the formation of the Drug Squad, high level drug investigations were conducted by staff drawn from various units within Crime Agencies, such as the “South East Asian Crime Group”. 782 State Crime Command, Marco Organisation Chart/Role and Function Statements (ABEF), 24 September 2002, p. 21. 783 NSW Police, Standard Operating Procedures, Crime Agencies, August 1998. 784 COPS database. One of these operations was conducted in conjunction with the Police Integrity Commission. 785 Submission, NSW Police, State Crime Command Drug Squad, 1 August 2003. 786 Ibid. 142 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001
However, the submission concluded by noting that “assumptions should not be drawn from the frequency of use by this command, as the deterrent factor will remain regardless of how often it is used”. 787 According to the Drug Squad’s submission, the Drug Premises Act was intended to address drug supply at the LAC level. It was noted that the provisions in the Act “appear to be more suited to LAC level strategies as it was originally intended”. 788 8.6.2. Level of drug supply targeted when the State Crime Command used the Act As the tables below indicate, the State Crime Command typically seized larger quantities of money and prohibited drugs than LACs utilising the Drug Premises Act. As the Drug Squad submission to our discussion paper noted, it was evident that sophisticated methodologies were regularly utilised in drug investigations conducted by the State Crime Command that were very rarely used at the LAC Level. These methodologies included the use of technical surveillance such as telephone intercepts and covert video surveillance. The table and graph below show the quantities of money and drugs seized when the State Crime Command and SCIA used the drug premises legislation. Figures on money recovered by State Crime Command only include money that was found on the premises. They do not include, for example, amounts of money that were noted in event narratives as being in off shore accounts held in the occupant’s name. Figure 22: Money recovered by State Crime Command in drug premises Amount of money located 35000 32500 30000 27500 25000 22500 20000 17500 15000 12500 10000 7500 5000 2500 0 31007.2 27300 28130 8060 9000 5020 4600 2131.2 900 0 0 0 395 390 1295 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Incident Source: COPS event narratives and search warrant documents. Incidents 4 and 5 relate to uses of the Act by SCIA and the PIC respectively. The table below shows the quantity and types of prohibited drugs seized when the State Crime Command laid charges under the Drug Premises Act. Drugs were located on 13 occasions in which the Act was used. On one of these 13 occasions, cannabis was the only prohibited drug located. 787 Ibid. 788 Ibid. NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 143
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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
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In relation to the money located on
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5.7.6. Cars as drug premises As we
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… rather than being on the edge o
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Chapter 6. The Drug Premises Act -
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• the offence of being found on,
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With reverse onus, we didn’t have
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In the following section, we will d
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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 and 126: Of these 52 people, 31 people pled
Page 127 and 128: 7.8. Conclusion: Impact of the Drug
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: Table 23. Drugs located, Northern R
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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