Three Western Australia Police officers who tested positive for methamphetamine and ecstasy were targeted by internal investigations following a tip-off that they took drugs at the Perth Stereosonic event the previous day.
As The West Australian reports, two male and one female constables are believed to have attended the music festival in Claremont last Sunday, the day before investigators visited their homes and forced them to provide urine samples.
According to The West Australian, one of the male officers is the same cop who shot dead an escaped dog named Biggie in Kinross last month, sparking widespread public outrage and threats of legal action from the grieving owner.
The officer reportedly was not drug tested on the day of that incident, but Western Australia Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan confirmed yesterday that the officer was randomly tested the next day and the result was negative.
When the Scarborough officer was drug tested again on Monday, he returned a positive result for meth. Meanwhile, the two other officers, who are from Midland police station, were found to have ecstasy in their systems.
When reached for comment by Seven West Media, police refused to confirm further details about the testing operation, which involved some 200 police officers, or on reports that one officer tried to run away when investigators came knocking.
However, Mr O’Callaghan did confirm the operation was “intelligence” based. “I am aware that they were targeted tests based on intelligence… we had received some information about these officers,” he said.
The three officers have been stood down amid the launch of a “loss of confidence” process. Mr O’Callaghan said it was “99 percent” likely the officers would lose their jobs and there is potentially “criminal offences involved”.
“At some stage they must have obtained it (the drugs) from somebody… so that is a concern for me,” he said. “There is potentially criminal offences involved. These people are police officers charged with upholding the law.”
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“They are carrying lethal force options and they need to be clean and it is my job to make sure that they stay that way.” However, Mr O’Callaghan did not believe the officers could be charged with a criminal offence as they were not legally in possession of the drugs.
As Magnetic Magazine notes, while the officers may have ingested the drugs at Stereosonic, there is no proof of this occurring as the positive tests could have been the result of ingesting drugs before or after the event.
It’s also not clear whether the three officers were attending Stereosonic as revellers or whether they were on duty at the event. According to Fairfax, a Sydney security firm is investigating allegations one of their guards took GHB during their shift at the event.
Media outlets reported a security guard had taken the party drug during his Saturday shift, before he was taken to hospital. “Reddawn Security takes the allegations very seriously and has launched a full internal investigation regarding the alleged behaviour,” managing director Simon Auston said.
