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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

During their search, police officers also found items that may have been used to protect the property and safety of the occupants, including a .22 calibre rifle and a floor mounted safe. 289 Police concluded that “from the set up of the house and the surveillance in place it is believed that the premises are used as a drug house.” 290 5.2.2.4. How security measures were considered at court Several court cases we examined for this review considered the security measures on identified drug premises. The questions that emerged concerned when the security devices had been affixed to the premises, and whether these measures were unusual for the area. In one court case involving the use of the legislation in Cabramatta, there was some discussion of when steel bars had been put on a unit. The case involved a man who had been visiting the premises when the search warrant was executed, but had also previously lived on the premises. He was charged with being found on, entering or leaving drug premises. In court, the man said that the bars had been put on the unit while he was living there, but that the real estate agent had also put bars on five other units in the same block. 291 He was convicted of being found on drug premises, and was given a 12 month bond. 292 In another case, also in Cabramatta, police intending to execute a search warrant on suspected fortified drug premises accidentally went to the unit next door when they went to execute the search warrant. In court, one of the police officers described what happened: … police then forced entry to a large iron door to gain access to the interior wooden door. At the same time, police were yelling out “Police, open the door, open the door”. Police then attempted to force entry to the wooden door, it was then that I noticed the number 1 at the top of the door which was covered in paint of similar colour to the paint on the door. I then told the police to stop what they were doing. 293 When the police officer was cross examined, it was established that there was no difference between the fortification on both units. The police officer said: …A lot of places are fortified for - I mean some have you know - a lot have the big iron doors for legitimate purposes, some just have normal screen doors. But as a – its only an indicator… just one of the indicators. 294 The police officer also told the court that a hole had been cut in the “fortified screen door so [the occupants] can open the interior door and they will just do the drug transaction”. 295 According to the officer, this was to avoid drug rip offs and cash robberies. 296 In relation to the fortifications, the magistrate found that the there were certain conclusions that the court could draw from “the door being fortified, the hole in the screen”. 297 This evidence, together with the presence of a syringe and foil and a razor blade on the premises, and police observations of people coming to the house, led the magistrate to conclude that the premises was a drug premises. On another occasion, also in Cabramatta, a woman charged with allowing her premises to be used as drug premises had put bars on the windows and doors of the house which she was renting. At court, the fortifications on the premises were discussed at some length. 298 It was established that when the woman was first interviewed, she had told police that the bars had been put on the house because her house had been broken into. At court, her explanation for the security on the premises changed. The woman said that her former boyfriend was a jeweller and the bars were put on the house to protect valuable jewellery. When she was cross examined, the woman conceded that the house had not been broken into, but that someone had tried to get in by kicking the door, but had not succeeded. 299 In his judgement, the magistrate said the following in relation to the security on the house, and the woman’s explanation for it: The window and door fortifications with bars, which I have to say is unusual, well, its not unusual for Sydney, but it is unusual to perform such substantial work on a rented flat. That may or may not have been too unusual had the explanation for it not been so worryingly or suspiciously inconsistent between the record of interview and Ms Non’s evidence today in the witness box. 300 289 Ibid. Police also found property they believed to be stolen, scales, and resealable plastic bags. The occupant was charged with allowing his premises to be used as drug premises, and was also charged with various firearms and goods in custody offences. 290 COPS event narrative, Greater Hume Region, Drug Premises Incident 34. 291 Liverpool Local Court, Police v. Thuy Dat Vang, 9 November 2001, p. 8 292 Ibid. 293 Liverpool Local Court, Police v. Dang Nihn Nguyen, 4 December 2001, p. 6. 294 Ibid, p. 20. 295 Ibid, p. 19. 296 Ibid, p. 19. 297 Ibid, p. 7. 298 In addition, surveillance footage of a large people arriving at the premises, and leaving a short time later, the fact that people continued to arrive at the premises during the execution of the search warrant, and that a woman was found by police with two foils of heroin in her possession after she had just left the premises, were also relied upon by the prosecution to argue that the premises were drug premises. 299 Liverpool Local Court, Police v. Sim Non, 29 June 2003, p. 10. 300 Ibid, p. 18-19. 60 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001
The woman was found guilty of allowing her premises to be used as drug premises and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. The prosecution had also relied upon a range of other evidence, including police surveillance footage that showed up to 35 people coming to her kitchen window over a period of two and a half hours, each of whom left three or four minutes later. 5.5.3. Section 11(2)(c): Lookouts According to the Drug Premises Act, a lookout is: A person who is in the vicinity of the premises for the purpose of communicating to any person on the premises to warn the person of impending police action. 301 The presence of lookouts, an indicia of drug premises under section 11(c) of the Act, was rarely noted by Police in relation to identified drug premises. In one instance, in an inner city suburb, police noted that a lookout had previously been seen at the premises. 302 A police intelligence report that related to the use of the Act in Cabramatta, stated that police had received complaints from local residents that drug dealing was occurring at a particular unit. Police went to the unit, and stated in the intelligence report that on their arrival a “male was sitting out the front (cockatooing) and admitted he was from the unit”. 303 5.5.4. Section 11(2)(d) : Syringes and means or devices for using drugs Syringes found in the possession of a person on the premises, or on the premises itself, are one of the indicia to which regard may be had in determining if premises are drug premises. 304 Also included is any means or device relating to the use of a prohibited drug. 305 Items such as tourniquets to assist the injection process or spoons used for mixing drugs may be encompassed by this section of the Act. 5.5.4.1. Syringes In his second reading speech, the Attorney General noted that piles of syringes are characteristic of some drug premises. One of the reasons for this, according to police, is that some premises have a no takeaways policy, requiring that when drugs are purchased, they must be injected prior to leaving the premises. Police believe that this practice is designed to foil the attempts of undercover officers to conduct controlled drug buys. 306 For example, on one identified drug premises in the Western Region, police had evidence that a person who was supplying drugs from the premises was also supplying syringes, swabs and spoons to drug purchasers. In the event narrative, police stated that the person: … openly talks about making people use the drug in the premises and her supplying needles, swabs and spoons. The users then leave the premises with nothing on them to avoid Police attention. The defendant openly states that she does not use amphetamines and only gets it to supply it to others. 307 When the legislation was debated in Parliament, concerns were raised about the inclusion of syringes as a matter to which regard may be had in determining whether premises are drug premises. One member of the Legislative Council feared that the inclusion of syringes in the legislation may “work against the policy of trying to encourage as many drug users as possible to use clean syringes” and, in turn, may have a negative impact on NSPs. 308 In a submission from one Area Health Service to our discussion paper, it was noted that individuals “addicted to substances are likely to have drug paraphernalia, including syringes, in their possession” and concern was expressed that: If this group was to retreat from accessing the Needle and Syringe Exchange Service this could have a serious impact on the health of the individual and the broader community. 309 301 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 3. 302 COPS event narrative, Inner Metropolitan Region Drug Premises Incident 1. 303 Intelligence Report 4, Cabramatta LAC, Drug Premises Incident 4. 304 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 11 (2) (d). 305 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 11 (2) (d). 306 NSW Police, Mandatory Continuing Police Education Scheme Package, Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001, p. 6. 307 COPS event narrative, Western Region Event, Drug Premises Incident 6. 308 The Hon. I. Cohen, NSWPD, 21 June 2001, p. 14999. 309 Submission, Northern Sydney Area Health, 1 August 2003. NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 61
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 and 20: As the table indicates, more than o
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: In our chapter on Cabramatta, we di
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?