POLICE have described the substitution of talcum powder for cocaine in the training of Victorian sniffer dogs as an "embarrassing administrative bungle".
However, despite downplaying yesterday's revelations in The Australian, Assistant Commissioner Paul Evans could not rule out police corruption after confirming three separate inquiries were under way.
Mr Evans admitted seven of the state's elite drug sniffer dogs had to be retrained after spending more than five months on Melbourne's streets unable to track cocaine because they were mistakenly trained to detect the drug with talcum powder.
He said initial investigation had indicated the talcum powder may have been mislabelled as cocaine by police, but conceded that there may be a more sinister explanation.
"This is an embarrassing incident ... That's why we are having a full investigation. We need to drill down and find out what's going on," Mr Evans said.
Police discovered they were using talcum powder to train the dogs to detect cocaine during an internal audit, Mr Evans said.
"The good news is this has been picked up early by our internal processes. We also expect to be able to quickly track down any lost babies."
Mr Evans said police had not charged anyone with the possession of misidentified talcum powder, but conceded it was possible the dogs had failed to detect the presence of cocaine on suspects.
Victorian Police Minister Tim Holding said internal affairs investigators and the state's ombudsman, George Brouwer, would get to the bottom of the incident.
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