Parklife made its way to Melbourne today, and after a relatively trouble-free start last weekend in Sydney and Brisbane, Melbourne Police decided it was up to them to set the standards for the festival season. According to the Herald Sun, a dog operation saw police arrest over 30 people for possession of various drugs, including ecstasy, cocaine, amphetamines, ice and cannabis.
Sergeant Mark Pilkington told the Herald Sun that it was a real disappointment that people would bring drugs to an event such as Parklife, “but history tells us that’s what’s going to happen,” he said.
“PAD [Passive Alert Detection] dogs are highly skilled at detecting drugs and have a sense of smell which is 50 times greater than humans,” he went on to say.
Last year figures released by the State Government showed PAD dogs don’t always detect the right people. 2011 figures for NSW show that of the 14,000 drug searches conducted, 11,000 people were innocent, meaning that 4 times out of 5 the dogs get it wrong.
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties have previously told Music Feeds that they receive several complaints each year from the public who claim to have been subjected to humiliating searches.
What do you think? Are the dogs a help or a hindrance?
