Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you undoubtedly heard about the NSW Police Force’s policy regarding drug dogs at Sydney festival Above & Beyond that was announced last week.
The policy, among other things, said that if a sniffer dog were to smell or sit beside someone upon entering the festival, they would automatically be denied entry – regardless of whether any drugs were found.
The Greens and their ‘Sniff Off’ collective took the NSW Police Force to court, but the judge shot down the attempt saying it was completely hypothetical.
“We don’t waste our time with hypothetical issues like that,” Justice Pembroke told the court.
“If I may say so, the prospect your client will be evicted from the concert is hardly justification for bringing this claim in advance,” he continued. He also said that the complaint might have ground to stand on once people have actually been affected by the policy.
Well, that time has come. Above & Beyond Festival went down over the weekend, and SBS is reporting that ‘Sniff Off’ campaigners were there informing people of their rights via flyers. Now, they are saying that they were contacted by punters that claimed they were not allowed in the festival due to the drug dogs, despite having no drugs on them. There were at least two drug dogs on site during the festival.
In a post on Facebook, ‘Sniff Off’ have stood their ground and called out the pretty blatant abuse of power by the NSW Police Force.
“This is a serious abuse of police powers,” they said. “We will see the NSW Police Force in court next week.”
More on this story as it unfolds.
Read ‘Sniff Off’s Facebook post below.
