[Greens-Media] Media release: Sniff off – police were on duty when they lied on Facebook

[David Shoebridge MLC]

*Media Release *

*2 May 2016 *



The Greens have received written confirmation from Police Commissioner
Andrew Scipione that all of the police who recently lied about the presence
of drug dogs on the Sniff Off Facebook site have been involved in drug dog
operations.



In a further revelation it was confirmed that two of the police were on
duty when they posted the false information.



On 29 February and 7 March 2016 a total of three police officers posted
false information to the Sniff Off Facebook page regarding the location of
drug dogs on the Sydney train network.



Despite multiple reports confirming the location of police and dogs at
Sydenham Station on February 29 and Liverpool Station on March 7, three
people posted that there were no police operations at these stations.



Investigations by Sniff Off and Vice revealed that they were likely police
officers. This fact has now been confirmed in correspondence received by
the Greens Justice Spokesperson David Shoebridge from Police Commissioner
Andrew Scipione (see attached).



Commissioner Scipione's correspondence was in reply to a series of
questions put to him by the Greens about the affair (also attached).



All three officers were in the Police Transport Command and all had been
involved in drug dog operations. The Police Transport Command is the
command with the largest growth in drug dog operations in the past three
years and is also the command with the worst track record of delivering
false positive drug dog indications. In 2014 out of a total of 3,592
searches after a drug dog indication by the Transport Command a staggering
80% or 2,871 were false positives with no drugs being found (source:
https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/papers/pages/qanda-tracking-details.aspx?pk=224560)




Greens MP and Justice Spokesperson David Shoebridge said: "This is a clear
case of the police, while on duty, engaging in grossly inappropriate
behavior on social media.



"It goes without saying that police should never be telling lies in public,
and this is doubly true when they are on duty and being paid by the public.



"We know that the police don't like the fact that Sniff Off is telling the
truth about drug dog operations, how they waste police time and are a
routine violation of civil liberties. However this does not give police
license to log on and lie.



"While we welcome Commissioner Scipione's condemnation of the police
conduct there remain a series of questions unanswered.



"We still do not know if any of this conduct was known to, or condoned by,
senior officers at Transport Command or what is being done to change police
culture to prevent this happening again.



"The police's job is to enforce the law and to hopefully do it with the
utmost integrity. They are not paid to go on line and lie in an attempt to
derail a political discussion about the utility of drug dogs," Mr
Shoebridge said.





*Media Contact *

David Shoebridge 0408 113 952




-- 

*David ShoebridgeGreens MP in the NSW Legislative CouncilP: (02) 9230
3030 |Media: 0408 113 952|T: @ShoebridgeMLC
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