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

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Event narratives are a fruitful source of information. The narratives describe an incident usually fairly contemporaneously from a police perspective and are often quite detailed. 44 Event narratives are also the only document type that we have been able to examine in relation to every use of the Act in which charges were laid under the drug premises provisions. We analysed the content of drug premises event narratives to examine features such as the police description of how the drug premises and the illicit drug activity were taking place. The quantitative analysis of event narratives involved collating and analysing data from all event narratives under the following categories. Details of the use of the act: • when, where and how often the Act was used • if a warrant was obtained and what type (this was not always recorded) and • any details provided on the execution of the warrant, for example, if the police entry to the premises was obstructed by the occupants. Details of the premises: • any security features noted by police • if the premises were described as “non-domestic” and • if the presence of lookouts was noted. Items seized from the premises: • any quantities of drugs seized • any syringes found on the premises • any items associated with drug supply or manufacture found • any quantities of money seized and • any firearms/ammunition or other prohibited weapons found on the premises. This data was collated and analysed to assess the extent to which premises met the criteria that may be used to define drug premises in the Act. Data on the quantities of money and drugs seized from premises enabled us to investigate the level of drug supply that the Act appeared to be targeting. 45 Our examination of COPS event narratives also enabled us to: • calculate the number of premises, including dwellings and cars, in relation to which the Act was used and charges were laid over the review period • examine all uses of the Drug Premises Act when charges were laid under this Act • identify any State-wide patterns that emerged and • collate State-wide statistics on aspects of the use of the Act, such as the quantities of drugs seized over the review period. The table below sets out the number of event narratives examined for this review for each police region and for the State Crime Command. Table 1. Drug premises event narratives examined for this review Police region/command Number of event narratives examined Number of uses of the Drug Premises Act in which charges were laid under this Act 46 Greater Metropolitan Region 98 79 Inner Metropolitan Region 29 16 Northern Region 9 9 Southern Region 17 12 Wesstern Region 7 7 State Crime Command 13 4 Total 181 141 Source: COPS database, event narratives. 44 In some instances, more than one event narrative was written about a single use of the Act. Each of these narratives was usually been written by another police officer involved in the incident. 45 This data is set out in our chapter, “Targeting Drug Supply”. 46 Police in several LACs that we audited notified us of instances in which a drug premises search warrant was granted, but no drug premises charges were laid. These instances have been included. 18 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001
As the table indicates, more than one narrative was sometimes written about a single use of the legislation. Unless otherwise stated, the quotes from event narratives are verbatim, and have not been corrected for spelling, grammar or typographical errors made by police. 2.4.2. Examination of search warrant documents in ten commands In addition to our examination of event narratives relating to the use of the drug premises provisions, we also examined search warrant documents relating to the use of the Act in nine LACs and by the State Crime Command. 47 The purpose of this audit was to enable us to cross check data that was provided in event narratives and to build up a more detailed picture of how the legislation was used in these areas. We requested the following documents from police: • intelligence reports • the search warrant application • the search warrant (or “notice” if it was a telephone warrant) • operational orders or a written briefing • the event narrative and • search warrant video. We audited the following commands: Cabramatta, Campbelltown, Kings Cross, Redfern, Mid North Coast, Coffs Harbour, Richmond, Shoalhaven, Chifley, and the State Crime Command. Some commands were selected to investigate specific research questions. Because a key impetus for the introduction of the Act was to assist police in dealing with drug premises in Cabramatta, we sought to examine in some detail how useful the legislation had been to police in Cabramatta. Similarly, since the Act was also intended to assist police in dealing with organised and professional drug dealers, we sought to examine how useful the Act had been to the State Crime Command Drug Squad, a unit specifically tasked to deal with this type of drug offender. Another factor we considered in selecting commands was a desire to examine the use of the Act in both rural and urban areas. We selected LACs from the Southern, Northern and Western police regions. Campbelltown LAC, on the south western edge of Sydney, was selected because it was second to Cabramatta in the frequency of its use of the Act during the first year of the review period. The remaining Sydney metropolitan commands were selected for a variety of reasons. Redfern has a high proportion of Aboriginal residents and has entrenched problems with illicit drugs in areas such as the Block. Historically, the relationship between Aboriginal people and police in Redfern has also been a difficult one. In addition, during the course of this review, it emerged that a number of prosecutions for drug premises offences in Redfern had failed. 48 Kings Cross was selected for auditing following concerns that were raised about an incident in which the Act was used on a safe house brothel in the area. In addition, Kings Cross, like Cabramatta, has also been known for the prevalence of illicit drug activity. This area was also of interest to our office because drug law enforcement in this area had been a key area of investigation for the Wood Royal Commission. 2.4.3. Search warrant and other document types examined In the Appendix of this report, we have described the various types of search warrant documents, and other types of documents such as intelligence reports, that we examined for this review. 2.4.4. Demographic information about people charged or issued with drug move-ons At our request, NSW Police conducted a search of the COPS database to locate every charge laid for every offence in the Drug Premises Act, and demographic information about the person who was charged. The information provided identified the following in relation to each person who was charged for an offence under the Act: • age • gender • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) status and • country of birth. 47 Our original information request for search warrant documents for our review of the Act was sent to NSW Police in October 2001. NSW Police expressed concerns about the resources that would be involved in collating these documents. Consequently, we reduced our request to a set of “Minimum Information Requirements”. Both the original information request, and the “Minimum Information Requirements” that were given to LACs are reproduced in the Appendix of this report. 48 Several of these cases are discussed later in this report in the chapter, “Offences in the Drug Premises Act”. NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 19
Page 1 and 2: Review of the Police Powers (Drug P
Page 3 and 4: Contents Preface ..................
Page 5 and 6: Chapter 11. Drug move-on powers in
Page 7 and 8: Acknowledgements This report was re
Page 9 and 10: Part One. Background. Chapter 1. In
Page 11 and 12: Drug offences, unlike for example,
Page 13 and 14: elieve is in a public place with th
Page 15 and 16: Chapter 2. Methodology In this chap
Page 17: 2.3.5. Health data NSP distribution
Page 21 and 22: 2.4.7. Complaints The NSW Ombudsman
Page 23 and 24: NSW Police advised us that calculat
Page 25 and 26: Another data limitation is that COP
Page 27 and 28: Chapter 3. Legislative survey This
Page 29 and 30: Once police have entered the suspec
Page 31 and 32: The table below sets out the penalt
Page 33 and 34: (c) that the nature and extent of t
Page 35 and 36: The Act contains four additional in
Page 37 and 38: A fortification removal notice is r
Page 39 and 40: For example, section 39(3) of the Q
Page 41 and 42: Part Two. Drug premises Chapter 4.
Page 43 and 44: In the police training manual on th
Page 45 and 46: Case study 2. Drug premises search
Page 47 and 48: 4.2.4. Presenting the application b
Page 49 and 50: A Crime Manager we interviewed from
Page 51 and 52: applications. In this Act, an inves
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 5. The definition of drug p
Page 55 and 56: 5.2. Recommendation That Parliament
Page 57 and 58: 5.5.2. Section 11(2)(b): fortificat
Page 59 and 60: In our chapter on Cabramatta, we di
Page 61 and 62: The woman was found guilty of allow
Page 63 and 64: 5.5.5. Means or devices for drug us
Page 65 and 66: Number of Premises Figure 7. Razor
Page 67 and 68: However, no other evidence of drug
Page 69 and 70:
• magnum revolver and a 0.357 mag
Page 71 and 72:
5.5.8. Section 11(2)(g): large amou
Page 73 and 74:
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 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 and 148:
The prohibited drugs that were loca
Page 149 and 150:
One factor that appears to have per
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