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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

This data informed our assessment of whether particular concerns, such as the concern that young people would be targeted by the Act, were borne out. For our audit of the drug move-on powers, we have also used racial appearance data from the COPS system. This information was used to assist us to investigate concerns that particular racial groups were being targeted in the use of the drug move-on powers. This field does not purport to be an accurate assessment of the person’s ethnicity, but is based on a visual assessment of the person that is made by the police officer. 49 It is also important to note that COPS does not record systematically how many people were moved on in an incident. 50 Not all records noted demographic details of every person moved on. For example, while the narrative might refer to four or five people moved on, the demographic details for only one or two people in the group were recorded. 2.4.5. Court data Statistics on court outcomes and pleas relating to persons charged with drug premises offences were provided by BOCSAR at our request. This information was not available for all persons who were charged, partly because some matters had not yet been heard in court. 51 We also collected data on pleas and court outcomes from transcripts we received from local courts, and sought advice directly from the courts if any of this information was not provided in the transcript. Another important research question was how the Drug Premises Act was judicially interpreted. One hundred and forty court transcripts relating to the key offences in the Act were examined. These transcripts were requested from local courts in metropolitan and rural areas. Extracts from these transcripts have mostly been included in the chapter “Offences in the Drug Premises Act”. 2.4.6. Interviews and focus groups We conducted interviews and focus groups with police, health professionals, community representatives, a drug user advocacy group, legal practitioners and drug users. Interviews with the commander of the NSW Police Drug Squad and the head of Drug Policy in the NSW Police were conducted. Interviews were also conducted with senior police from Cabramatta LAC. Two focus groups were held at Cabramatta LAC. One involved police who had used the legislation in relation to drug premises in the area, and a second focus group was conducted with police at Cabramatta LAC who had used the drug move-on powers. The Crime Manager and a police officer experienced in the use of the Drug Premises Act were interviewed at several LACs we visited. Police in LACs in the Western, Southern and Northern regions were interviewed by telephone and asked about uses of the legislation in their area. Telephone interviews were conducted with health professionals and community workers who worked in Cabramatta, and with community representatives, to seek their views on the impact and operation of the legislation. A focus group was held to investigate the use of the Act on a safe house brothel in an inner city LAC. A senior health professional from the area, a representative from a sex worker advocacy group and a representative from a local legal service participated in the group. A focus group was also conducted with members of a drug user advocacy group about the legislation. In December 2003, the project officer for this review attended an area in Cabramatta close to a site where syringes are distributed and another site in Liverpool where methadone is dispensed, to interview drug users about the use of the drug move-on powers in the area. A worker from the NSW Users and AIDS Association (NUAA) was also present and assisted in facilitating these interviews. Clients were approached after they had used these services and asked if they would like to participate in an interview. These interviews were semistructured and were tape-recorded. While far from representative, these interviews provided an insight into the views and experience of illicit drug users. 49 We discuss racial appearance data in more detail in Chapter 11: Drug move-on powers in Cabramatta. 50 For those records we audited, we counted how many people were moved on in each incident. For example, in our State-wide audit, 246 incidents were audited, and in these incidents, a total of 394 people were moved on. 51 According to the COPS database, 402 charges were laid under the Drug Premises Act during the review period. Information on pleas and court outcomes was available in relation to 297 of the charges that were laid over the review period. 20 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001
2.4.7. Complaints The NSW Ombudsman is responsible for handling complaints about public authorities in NSW, including NSW Police. We receive a number of complaints and inquiries regarding NSW Police each year. During the review period, we received one complaint about an incident in which the Drug Premises Act was used. The incident, and the complaint arising from it, is described later in this report. We did not receive any complaints about the use of the drug move-on powers, though several complaints were received about the use of move-on powers generally. In considering the apparent absence of complaints about this legislation, it is important to note that there are a number of factors that may influence a person’s decision to complain. 52 Some of these include: knowledge of complaint mechanisms, fear of recrimination, a lack of confidence in government agencies and/or police, and the power imbalance between the complainant and the subject of the complaint, in this case, a police officer. These factors may have a particular impact on vulnerable groups in the community, such as young people, the homeless, some illicit drug users, people from Non- English Speaking Backgrounds and Aboriginal people. For example, research conducted on young Asian people’s experience of policing in Cabramatta found that: While many young people were angry about their experiences with the police, most felt powerless to do anything about it and expressed a lack of confidence in formal mechanisms for dealing with complaints about police. 53 2.4.8. The drug move-on audit In order to review the use of the drug move-on power, we analysed data provided by NSW Police, extracted from COPS. This data enabled us to calculate how many drug related move-ons police recorded on the COPS database over the review period. Below, we discuss how police record drug move-ons on the COPS database and how recording practices and procedures impacted upon our review. We also outline the methodology used to conduct our audit of the use of the drug move-on powers. We audited drug move-on records in Cabramatta (the Cabramatta audit) and conducted an audit of 17 LACs across NSW (the State-wide audit). 2.4.9. How is a move-on recorded When police create any event on COPS, they must identify an incident type for the event. 54 Originally, a move-on incident was classified as a “street offence”. Up until changes in May 2002, police were required to record whether the incident was an “obey direction to moveon” or a “refuse direction to move-on”, and could then further classify the incident as “drug related”. A drug move-on incident in which the direction issued was complied with, may have been recorded as follows: Event number Incident Type Incident further classification Associated Factor Additional factor 12345678 Actual street offence Obey direction to move-on Drug related Other Incidents classified with an associated factor of “drug related” constitute all those incidents in which the police officer considered that drugs were a related factor in the incident. NSW Police advised us that: “DRUG RELATED” expresses the submitting officer’s opinion that drugs were involved in some way in the relevant incidents. The events listed here will capture the larger set of incidents than those directly related to s 28F(1)(d) and (e) of the Summary Offences Act. 55 [emphasis added]. 52 These issues are discussed more fully in our report on the use of the original move-on powers, NSW Ombudsman, Policing Public Safety, Report under s. 6 of the Crimes Amendment (Police and Public Safety) Act 1998, 1999, pp 96-99. 53 Lisa Maher, David Dixon, Wendy Swift and Tram Nugyen, Anh Hai: Young Asian People’s Perception and Experiences of Policing, Sydney, 1997, p. 42, quoted in NSW Ombudsman, Policing Public Safety, Report under s. 6 of the Crimes Amendment (Police and Public Safety) Act 1998, p. 97. 54 An event can contain more than one incident type. 55 Email, NSW Police, External Agencies Response Unit, Subject: “Move-ons”, 21 October 2002. 54 An event can contain more than one incident type. 55 Email, NSW Police, External Agencies Response Unit, Subject: “Move-ons”, 21 October 2002. NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 21
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 and 18: 2.3.5. Health data NSP distribution
Page 19: As the table indicates, more than o
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
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?