Lucy Moore was stopped by a drug dog and denied entry to a Sydney festival, despite only having had one drink. Photo / Facebook
Lucy Moore was stopped by a drug dog and denied entry to a Sydney festival, despite only having had one drink. Photo / Facebook
Sniffer dogs are as much part of Sydney life today as overpriced brunches and sudden public transport breakdowns.
We're not just talking about the entrances to music festivals such as Defqon1 and Psyfari — the Australian government has already pulled the plug on those events.
Take a wander through Sydney's Central station during peak hour and you may well find yourself stopped by police, taken behind a semipublic barricade and stripsearched — even though, statistically, your pockets will probably yield nothing more illicit than a set of house keys.
In an especially baffling case last year, high school leavers had a dozen officers with sniffer dogs swoop in on their year 12 formal.
A report released last week found the number of strip-searches conducted in NSW has increased almost 20-fold in the past 12 years.
Research suggests the overwhelming majority of drug dog searches are fruitless; more often than not, no drugs are found, yet those stopped are still made to endure procedures such as strip searches and "squat and cough" tests many have described as "traumatic" and "dehumanising".
Police and the NSW Government maintain, however, that searches are necessary to keep the community safe.
This week, news.com.au. spoke to more than a dozen young people who had been stripsearched by police on suspicion of being in possession of illicit drugs.
Most requested anonymity, saying they feared reputational damage despite doing nothing wrong.
Here's what they had to say.
'THIS ABUSE OF POWER NEEDS TO STOP'
Lucy Moore knows from experience how traumatic strip-searches can be.
In March, the 19-year-old was stopped by a drug dog at Hidden Festival in Sydney. She said she had just one drink at her hotel before arriving, and had neither consumed nor carried any illegal drugs with her to the event.
A police officer told her she had been detected by a sniffer dog, and she was taken away to be stripsearched in a semi-private space.
"Not only did I see other people being searched, during my search the door was left half open and only blocked by the small female cop. I could easily see outside, which means that attendees and the male cops outside could have easily seen in as well," Ms Moore said.
"Not only this, a girl in the cubicle next to me was also searched with her door still open with a couple cops entering and leaving at will."
Ms Moore said she was made to "squat and cough" — a practice that entails bending over and coughing under the eye of officers to see if drugs are concealed in the rectal area.
Experts say the practice is legally questionable due to restrictions on anyone but a medical practitioner conducting a body cavity search.
Lucy Moore was stopped by a drug dog and denied entry to a Sydney festival, despite only having had one drink. Photo / Facebook
At the end of her "humiliating and embarrassing" ordeal, Ms Moore said she was interrogated, held for over an hour and ultimately still kicked out of the festival — all despite no drugs being found on her.
Legal experts tell news.com.au there have been several cases in recent years of festival-goers being denied entry into events, even though they were not found to be carrying drugs and paid for valid tickets.
"It makes me feel disgusted, for police to constantly be breaching laws and taking advantage of young people who don't know better. It's terrifying," Ms Moore told news.com.au.
A status she posted about the incident in March went viral, with more than 2000 shares and 12,000 reactions on Facebook.
"I think with the festival culture most teens are around these days, that strip-searches from police are something they deal with constantly, so it's something that they can all relate with," she said.
Ms Moore never received an apology from police and her ban from Sydney Olympic Park is still in place.
"I'm hoping we can get reform. Change is obviously needed to keep people's privacy," she said.
"Only 30 per cent of people will be charged and almost all of them being for very small amounts of drugs for personal use — leaving those 70 per cent with a humiliating and traumatic experience for absolutely no reason. It has to change."
Ms Moore says she never received an apology from police, and her ban from Sydney Olympic Park is still in place. Photo / Facebook
It's not just festivals and dance parties where people are targeted. Police dogs are increasingly frequenting train stations, street corners, small pubs and restaurants.
One Sydneysider, who declined to be named, said he was stripsearched a few years ago at Marrickville Bowling Club, a lawn bowls centre in Sydney's inner west.
"I was violently grabbed by the arms by the police and marched to the entrance of the club, where people were entering and leaving the party," he told news.com.au.
"In full view of other patrons, they made me take off my shoes and socks, looked inside my underwear and checked all my pockets and wallet, becoming increasingly aggressive and frustrated as they found nothing.
"There was no apology at the end for the wrongful search; they just seemed to assume that I was guilty but they couldn't find the evidence. I reported the search but nothing came of the report.
A barricade set up for searching at Central station in Sydney. Photo / Facebook
Another Sydneysider, who requested only to be identified as Nate, said he was escorted out of a Sydney music festival by police after he was seen texting a friend.
"I was singled out as I was there by myself waiting for a mate who was coming from the other side of Sydney, so I was texting a lot and walking from stage to stage depending who was playing," he told news.com.au.
Later, as they were dancing in the middle of the dancefloor, he said police tapped both of them on the shoulder and told them to follow them outside.
"We were both sober as a judge," he said.
Nate described a setting in which a large group of police officers and security guards made him drop his pants and underwear, and pull up his shirt to be patted down.
"It made me feel very uncomfortable and like a criminal for doing absolutely zero wrong," he said. "I asked the security why we were targeted. They said that they had seen me walking around texting constantly on my phone and then meeting my mate, they followed us in to where we were dancing.
"Getting pulled out in front of others we knew as well and explaining it to them after was a sh*t feeling."
Another young woman gave evidence in July at an inquest into six drug-related festival deaths over the summers of 2017 and 2018.
The woman, whose identity was suppressed, told the NSW Coroners Court heavy security at a music festival she attended made her feel "like a criminal" and that the officer in charge threatened to strip-search her "nice and slow".
"Everyone was staring at me," she said. "I have been stripsearched twice and they've never found anything on me."
"She said, 'If you don't tell me where the drugs are I'm going to make this nice and slow,'" the woman said of the female police officer who conducted the test. "She made me take my shorts off and my underwear.
"Then she made me squat and cough … and then I had to turn around and squat and cough."
ARE STRIP-SEARCHES LEGAL?
It is legal in Australia for police to request a drug search if they have reasonable suspicion to do so.
But aspects of this process — such as what constitutes "reasonable suspicion" and the validity of the "squat and cough" method — fall into a grey area.
Jahan Kalantar, a lawyer who represents young people convicted after drug dog searches, told news.com.au their experiences are often "traumatic" and "terrifying".
He said police needed to establish grounds to justify a search.
Drug dogs are an important part of this, but because they're notoriously unreliable, police use other undisclosed, vague information to select a person. Police might claim that you look nervous, or that your behaviour suggests you've taken illicit substances, but there is no official checklist.
Sniffer dogs are a common sight at music festivals in Sydney. Photo / News Corp
The initial search involves removing your accessories and outer layers — backpacks, handbags, coats and hats. At this stage, police can turn out your pockets, pat you down, search your hair and instruct you to open your mouth.
NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge, who runs the anti-drug dog initiative Sniff Off, has long advocated against the practice.
"Often you're surrounded by six or seven police officers with dogs nearby. It can be very intimidating," Mr Shoebridge said.
"If nothing is found in that first search, what they should do is apologise and let people go on their way," he said.
But statistics show this is not the case, with people increasingly being taken away for full strip-searches.
A strip-search, according to experts, involves the removal of clothing but should not extend to making the person expose their breasts or genital areas. They must also be conducted by a member of the same sex.
The "squat and cough" practice is arguably illegal, according to Mr Shoebridge, as it constitutes a "body cavity search" and thus requires a medical practitioner to be present.
Mr Shoebridge said it also breached "the overarching requirement to preserve privacy and dignity".
"It's far from uncommon. It's a regular occurrence," he added.
Mr Kalantar said the legality of "squat and cough" was murky.
"Police are not trained to the extent of, say, a clinical doctor," he told news.com.au. "I think it's certainly a dirty practice.
"I don't understand how it's a good usage of police resources.
"If you're a father or a mother, do you really want police tapping on your children's genitals? Do you really want a state that says it's OK for this to occur? I have several clients who have been stripsearched — some of whom are child sex abuse survivors. It's traumatic for them. It reawakens that torment. (Strip-searches) should only be used on very special occasions."
