Latest news with #JackLaw
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Queensland police conduct searches under Jack's Law
Jack's Law allows police to search people for weapons at relevant places including shopping centres and train stations.
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Queensland makes Jack's Laws permanent, expanding police powers to search people for knives
Police powers to randomly search people for a weapon without a warrant in a public place have been made permanent in Queensland, despite concerns it will not reduce knife-related crime. Known as Jack's Law, the legislation was named in honour of Queensland teenager Jack Beasley, who was stabbed and killed on the Gold Coast in 2019 while on a night out with friends. The legislation passed on Wednesday expands Jack's Law to allow police to seek authority from a senior officer to scan a person for a knife or weapon in any public place. Under the new legislation, officers will be able to use a handheld scanner in a "relevant place" without the need to seek authorisation from a senior officer. A "relevant place" is defined as a licensed premises, public transport station, public transport vehicle, retail premises, safe night precinct, shopping centre, sporting or entertainment venue. Police will no longer need to offer to provide a written notice to people who are being scanned or notify a manager or occupier of a place that people are being scanned. Under the changes, the police commissioner is no longer required to publish information about each authority granted on the police website within two months, but it will continue to be included in the annual report. The amendment extends the powers beyond October 2026, when they were set to expire. Jack's father, Brett Beasley, described Jack's Law as "one of the most powerful" to be introduced in Queensland. "We are super proud," he said. "We have Jack looking down on us every day and we know Jack would be proud of what we have done for him." Police were first given the power to use a handheld scanner without a warrant to detect if a person had a knife as part of a trial at two safe night precincts on the Gold Coast in 2021. That trial was then extended to all safe night precincts and public transport stations across the state. Further law changes last year saw the trial widened to more public places including shopping centres, retail premises, sporting and entertainment venues, licensed premises and rail lines. Police conducted 116,000 scans between April 2, 2023, to June 5, 2025, which resulted in the seizure of 1,100 weapons. Acting Assistant Commissioner Rhys Wildman said it was a "huge concern" that 1 per cent of those scanned were found to be carrying weapons. "These laws are used across Queensland on a daily basis making sure they can keep our community safe and also protecting our officers," he said. He said the exercise had led to more than 3,000 offenders being charged for offences related to weapons, drugs and other matters. Griffith University professor Janet Ransley, who co-authored a review of the 12-month trial of Jack's Law on the Gold Coast, said making the laws permanent "won't achieve what the government promises". "The government promises safer communities and a reduction in violence but the only publicly available data that relates to the use of wands shows that they have no impact on reducing knife-related violence," she said. Professor Ransley said there was no doubt wands were effective at detecting knives but there needed to be further steps to address underlying drivers that lead people to carry knives. "We are seeing the diversion of significant resources and significant police time to a tactic that doesn't have any evidence to support it," she said. When asked about the need for an independent review, Mr Purdie said the laws had been trialled for five years and safeguards — including police body-worn cameras and mandatory reporting by police — were in place. Acting Assistant Commissioner Wildman said since the trial, two complaints had been made against police, which had resulted in no further action and the scans were deemed to be lawful and justified. 'What that highlights is the professionalism with which our frontline police operate these laws on a day-to-day basis,' he said. In a submission to the committee tasked with considering the changes, the Queensland Human Rights Commission recommended delaying making Jack's Law permanent until there was a further independent review into its efficacy in deterring knife crime. It submitted the use of handheld scanners without warrant or reasonable suspicion places "substantial limits on human rights". Mr Purdie said he believed the government had "found the balance between civil liberties and ensuring our police have the power to stop people carrying knives". "The stats speak for themselves," he said. "We trust police with these tougher laws because we are concerned about driving down victim numbers." Youth Advocacy Centre chief executive Katherine Hayes expressed concerns about removing the option to give a person an information notice about the search that helped "inform young people of their rights in intimidating situations". "We find that a lot of our clients don't know their most basic legal rights and legal obligations and so most of them wouldn't be aware that it's an offence just to carry a knife,' she said.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Expanded ‘Jack's law' police powers could lead to further ‘surveillance and harassment' of some Queenslanders, expert warns
Vulnerable and marginalised Queenslanders could be subjected to 'surveillance and harassment' under strengthened laws permitting police to detain and search any person anywhere in the state, the lead author of the only state-funded report into them has warned. 'Jack's law' permits police to randomly detain any person to search them with a metal detecting wand without the normal requirement that they reasonably suspect the person of a crime. However the powers are now limited to specific locations such as supermarkets, train stations and nightclub districts. The government says the law enables police to prevent knife violence. Parliament is expected to pass legislation on Wednesday expanding the law to include any public place in Queensland, and removing a sunset clause so that Jack's law – which first came into effect in May 2021 – becomes permanent. Prof Janet Ransley of Griffith University's criminology institute was commissioned by the state government in 2021 to review a year-long trial of the powers that ran from 1 May 2021 to 30 April 2022 . At the time, Jack's law – which was named after 17-year-old murder victim Jack Beasley, who was stabbed to death in 2019 – only applied on the Gold Coast. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Ransley's review found evidence that 'a small number of officers' were wanding people because of 'non-offending behaviours' such as being in groups, and warned there was a risk of 'stereotypes and discrimination'. Despite a recommendation from Ransley's 2022 report, the review remains the only independent assessment of the program, Ransley said. Ransley said the 'worst case scenario' would be for the expanded version of Jack's law to be used as 'another form of surveillance and harassment of those people who are already over surveilled' in Queensland. 'That includes First Nations people. It includes homeless people. It includes people with mental health issues who are visible on the streets.' She said it could also adversely affect vulnerable young people staying in a public place to flee family or sexual violence at home. 'It increases the level of intrusiveness into those vulnerable people's lives, without providing any support or mechanism for them to avoid that.' According to police statistics, 83% of the 100,611 people wanded since Jack's law came into effect were male. Of people with known ethnic origin, 11.8% were Indigenous – despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people making up only 4.6% of Queensland's population, according to census figures. A survey of 6,705 people scanned at shopping centres showed that 76% were male, and 55% were younger than 18. During another year-long trial that ended in June 2024, police laid more charges for drug possession – 1,384 – than for knife offences, of which 413 were recorded. 'There's no evidence that it's in any way effective in actually reducing knife related violence, which is the whole premise of the law,' Ransley said. The police minister, Dan Purdie, said the law 'is working' and the Crisafulli government 'makes no apology' for taking 'strong action against knife crime'. 'Since April 2023, police have conducted more than 116,000 wandings, made more than 3,000 arrests and seized more 1,100 weapons,' Purdie said. 'In that time, just one complaint has been lodged – proof officers are using these powers professionally and responsibly.' Purdie has previously said there would be a number of safeguards, including the requirement that a senior officer must sign off on wanding operations outside statutory areas such as nightclub districts. He said in April that police had 'shown they can be trusted with the legislation' and that other states 'are now taking our lead'. A range of legal bodies opposed the Crisafulli government's expansion of the law in submissions to a parliamentary committee inquiry earlier this year. The Queensland Human Rights Commission submission warned the legislation 'provides for the broad, unfettered use of hand held scanners' and that the 'limitations placed on human rights' were 'unlikely to be justified'. Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said 'it abrogates a fundamental protection of individual liberty, by removing the requirement of a police officer to have a reasonable suspicion prior to conducting a search of a person.' Labor is expected to back the legislation this week. Ransley's review also recommended the government conduct another inquiry, but Purdie refused to commit to one on Wednesday.
