The overwhelming failure of police drug-detection dogs to correctly sniff out illicit substances on people destroys any justification for the canines' presence at music festivals, critics say.
NSW Police search figures show the dogs scored an average success rate of just 25 per cent during the last decade.
Of the more than 94,000 general and strip searches undertaken from 2013 to June 30 this year after a drug dog detection, nearly 71,000 yielded no illicit drugs, according to figures released to Greens MP Cate Faehrmann.
In NSW, officers can undertake either general or strip searches if they have a reasonable suspicion people have illicit drugs in their possession.
However, a drug dog detection does not entitle police to routinely conduct a search and officers are required to ask follow-up questions, such as whether a person is in possession of banned drugs.
Ms Faehrmann says the use of sniffer dogs was leading to people being needlessly searched and called for the canines to be banned from music festivals.
"Tens of thousands of innocent people have been subjected to humiliating and degrading strip searches," she told AAP.
Ms Faehrmann said police used the presence of drug dogs to justify an "obscenely high" number of searches and strip searches throughout the state.
“For the police to claim that sniffer dogs are successful if drugs aren’t found on someone who is searched, who then admits under duress they may have been in contact or around drugs recently, is appalling," she said.
Health Minister Ryan Park said the use of drug-detection dogs was only one part of how police worked to uncover illicit substances.
But he conceded it was likely the issue would come up at a drug summit, due to take place next year.
A NSW Police spokeswoman said drug-detection dogs were very effective with the “majority” of canine searches resulting “in either drugs being located, or the person admitting recent contact with illegal drugs".
The release of the data follows a damning audit from the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission that revealed police were failing to follow proper procedures during strip searches.
It found less than half of NSW police officers who carried out strip searches at five music festivals in 2021 and 2022 had completed specialist training.
It also revealed officers routinely failed to properly complete official music festival field processing forms, intended to ensure searches were conducted lawfully.
The report highlighted that in some cases officers appeared to rely solely on drug dog indications when they carried out strip searches, in a breach of police policies.
Around 30 per cent of strip-search records audited did not demonstrate reasonable grounds for the procedure.
Mr Park said the police minister was due to receive a briefing from the law enforcement commission on the report.
