Why sniffer dogs should be banned at clubs and festivals
“If the university is serious about avoiding further tragedies they should invest in proven nightlife drug harm reduction measures. We should follow the evidence of what will keep people safe, not futile enforcement grandstanding.” -Steve Rolles, Senior Policy Analyst for the Transform Drug Policy Foundation.
There’s not a wealth of research on the effectiveness of the so-called “passive alert detection dogs”, but everything there is points to their unreliability. In the early 2000s, research conducted in Australia showed that after 10,000 searches instigated by a sniffer dog, drugs were found in only 26 percent of cases. In a 2008 operation at the UK’s Latitude Festival, this figure was even lower, with just 12 percent of searches resulting in a find. In 2011, research in California into how handlers’ bias affected the actions of the dog found overwhelmingly that our canine friends were influenced by the human controlling them.
Original Article (Vice):
Why Sniffer Dogs Should Be Banned at Clubs and Festivals
Artwork Fair Use: Bundesarchiv, Bild
