The Guardian
The New South Wales police force knew drug detection dogs only have a “30% hit-rate” but continued to use them as the primary justification to strip-search people at music festivals, a court has heard.
The revelation came amid closing arguments for a class action in the NSW supreme court, where lawyers for the plaintiffs have argued the vast majority of strip-searches conducted by state police between 2018 and 2022 at music festivals were unlawful.
The class action was brought by Slater and Gordon Lawyers and the Redfern Legal Centre against the state of NSW over allegedly unlawful strip-searches conducted by police, including of children.
‘Not one records why it was necessary’
Last week, the court heard from Raya Meredith, the lead plaintiff of more than 3,000 group members subjected to potentially unlawful strip-searches at music festivals by NSW police officers between 2016 and 2022.
She gave emotional testimony about her strip-search by police at the 2018 Splendour in the Grass after a drug dog sniffed in her direction but then walked on.
NSW police told woman to remove tampon in illegal strip-search, court hears
During the search, Meredith – 27 at the time – was asked to remove her tampon while undressed in front of a police officer. The search found no drugs, and nothing else illegal.
“The female police officer ran her hands over the plaintiff’s bare skin on her arms, up her thighs, and down her legs,” Kylie Nomchong SC, who is acting for the plaintiffs, told the court on Tuesday.
Nomchong told the court in her closing argument that Meredith’s case was not in isolation. At the 2018 Splendour in the Grass, 205 people were strip-searched but did not appear to meet the police’s threshold to merit this.
“Not one records why it was necessary, not one single [incident in the police database] records the circumstance that made it sufficiently serious or urgent to conduct a strip-search. Not one,” Nomchong told the court.
The Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002, which dictates police strip-search powers, insists police can only carry them out when “the seriousness and urgency of the circumstances make the strip-search necessary”.
The court heard that the police undertook 155 out of those 205 searches on the basis that the festival was a “well-known place” for drugs, the person “looked nervous” in police presence, and the dog had sniffed in the person’s direction. No drugs were found on those people.
Nomchong argued these instances did not meet the threshold under the legislation, and reminded the court that police documents show that drug dogs are only accurate 30% of the time.
“That was something the police service knew yet we saw COPS event after COPS event,” she said, referring to the Computerised Operational Policing System database, “where the only indication for the event was drug dog indication.”
In instances where drugs were found at the 2018 Splendour in the Grass, Nomchong said most festival-goers handed them over after being asked by police if they had any, making a strip-search unnecessary.
In one instance, a man told police when asked if he had any drugs that he had “some joints” taped to his leg. They still conducted a strip-search and found nothing else.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/13/nsw-police-music-festival-strip-search-class-action-drug-dog-justification-ntwnfb
