FIGURES that show sniffer dogs are wrong four out of five times dampened the launch of the NSW Police Force's new dog squad program this week. On Wednesday, the NSW Police Minister Michael Gallacher officially launched the Police Force's Dog Unit Regionalisation Program, which will see seven commands across NSW get a boost in the form of a dog squad. Richmond Local Area Command (LAC) welcomed a general-purpose german shepherd, a drug detection labrador and a police dog handler last month. [continues 233 words]
NORTH Coast students as young as 12 are using drugs and schools are being locked down because of violent schoolyard brawls. Disturbingly, more students were found carrying drugs on the North Coast than anywhere else in the state in Term Three last year. This insight into our schools comes from incident reports provided to The Northern Star by the Department of Education following a Freedom of Information request. Even more disturbing is that school communities are unaware of the widespread problems because of privacy concerns. [continues 313 words]
