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

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In another incident in a LAC in the Southern Region, it was also evident that the occupants of the drug premises were themselves drug users. In the event narrative, police noted that they believed that the unit was being used for the administration of prohibited drugs, but it does not appear that any other items associated with drug supply were found on the premises. Police had received “information that the occupants… [of the unit] were in possession of prohibited drugs”. They applied for and were granted a warrant. 810 Two women and a nine month old baby were on the premises when police arrived. In their search, police found syringes, swabs and tourniquets, 2.8 grams of amphetamine, 2.4 grams of cannabis and 2 “bongs”. In the event narrative, police do not record the seizure of any items associated with drug supply, such as scales, cutting agents or drug packaging, but note that they seized “numerous other items of interest including unmarked medical prescriptions and property”. 811 One woman, occupant A, was charged with allowing the premises to be used as drug premises, and possession of prohibited drugs, and occupant B was charged with possessing prohibited drugs. In the event narrative, police note: From locating the amphetamine and cannabis within the unit and the fact there were syringes, swabs and torniquets, police are of the opinion that the premises rented by the defendant [surname] is commonly used in the administration of prohibited drugs. 812 According to the event narrative, occupant A also “admitted to police that she is suffering from an addiction to amphetamines and is seeking assistance to get off the drug.” 813 8.6.5. Conclusion Most of the 114 uses of the Drug Premises Act over the review period have involved low level drug supply operations from premises. As NSW Police have noted, high level drug suppliers are unlikely to risk police scrutiny by allowing their premises to be used for drug supply. That said, several instances of very significant drug supply have also been affected by the use of the Act. Our research findings also suggest that some people who are involved in selling drugs from drug premises were doing so to support their own addiction. This is consistent with other research that has been conducted on the drug trade, and illustrates the inherent difficulties in isolating the impact of drug legislation to drug suppliers. Therefore, while the objective of the Drug Premises Act was to target organised and professional drug suppliers, user/dealers and those who were dealing for profit alone, and high level, middle level and low level dealers, do not appear to have been distinguished in the implementation of this Act. It is important to place the research findings of this review in a broader context. First, a factor that may have affected the level of drug supply that the legislation is targeting is resource availability in NSW Police. In interviews conducted for this review, police have consistently cited this as a factor impacting upon their ability to target high level drug supply operations. Second, as we have discussed in the chapter, “Methodology”, it is not possible to gauge the impact that the heroin drought may have had on the quantities of drugs seized from drug premises. Third, research on drug law enforcement has shown that it is not uncommon for drug law enforcement to fail in its aim of targeting more serious offenders. 814 It has been argued that, while it is widely accepted that police should focus on large-scale importers, suppliers, and traffickers, rather than user dealers, there is a: … significant disjuncture between law enforcement agencies” commitment to targeting major drug offenders and the more prosaic reality in which law enforcement impacts most on users and street-level dealers. 815 810 The type of search warrant is not noted. 811 Event narrative, Southern Region, Drug Premises Incident 3. 812 Ibid. 813 Ibid. 814 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. 815 Lisa Maher, David Dixon, Michael Lynskey and Wayne Hall, Running the Risks: Heroin, Health and Harm in South West Sydney, 1998, p. 98, referencing the work of Sutton and James, Evaluation of Australian Drug Anti-Trafficking Law Enforcement, National Police Research Unit, Payneham, 1995. 148 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001
One factor that appears to have perpetuated this phenomenon is the lack of a clear, consistent definition of what constitutes various levels of drug supply. One step toward better-targeted drug law enforcement could be the development of definitions that practically assist police to develop more targeted drug law enforcement strategies. Such an initiative would accord with the NSW Government’s evidence based approach to drug law enforcement, 816 and could also be used to further refine the NSW Police “Illicit Drug Law Enforcement Performance Indicators which are used to evaluate police performance in this area. 817 A final point is that, although they have not been specifically targeted, our review demonstrates that a number of drug suppliers have been affected by the Act. Those persons have been charged with offences under the Act. State Crime Command has also anticipated the future use of the Act to obtain warrants and search clandestine laboratories. This suggests the Act has on-going utility in dealing with significant drug manufacture and supply. 8.7. Recommendations That NSW Police develop definitions of what constitutes various “levels” of drug supply to practically assist them to develop more targeted drug law enforcement initiatives. That these definitions be incorporated into the process for evaluating NSW Police performance in relation to drug law enforcement, the “Illicit Drug Law Enforcement Performance Indicators”. NSW Police has advised us that it supports these recommendations in principle. In doing so, it has said: “While the value of such an undertaking is recognised and over time there has been work to that end, the relationship to the operation of the Drug Premises Act is less than clear. Work on the Illicit Drug Law Enforcement Performance Indicators Report is ongoing. Reference to definitions along the lines recommended will be considered in the context of the report”. 816 NSW Police, Drug Law Enforcement Performance Indicators, April 2002. 817 These are a set of performance indicators that were developed by Police in 2002 in response to a NSW Drug Summit recommendation. The indicators provide a mechanism to assess the effectiveness of a range of drug law enforcement strategies and are intended to “evolve to reflect changing circumstances”. NSW Police, Drug Law Enforcement Performance Indicators, April 2002 p.2. NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 149
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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
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The second reading speech, which gi
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In the granny flat, police found ca
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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 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: The prohibited drugs that were loca
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