Legal experts have cautioned that proposed laws expanding police powers in New South Wales to randomly "wand" or "scan" individuals for knives without a warrant may be prone to abuse due to the ambiguous language of the legislation.
Jordyn Beazley reported on June 4, 2024, that the NSW legislation, scheduled for debate this week, was developed following stabbings in Bondi Junction, Wakeley, and Coffs Harbour. Despite a 20-year decline in knife crime according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, the proposed laws aim to address public safety concerns.
The legislation mirrors Queensland's Jack's Law, implemented after a two-year trial on the Gold Coast following the 2019 death of 17-year-old Jack Beasley. However, Sam Lee, a senior solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, argued that the NSW legislation lacks the explicit legal safeguards present in Queensland's law, potentially leading to misuse of power by police.
However, Sam Lee, a senior solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, argued that the NSW legislation lacks the explicit legal safeguards present in Queensland's law, potentially leading to misuse of power by police.
Lee emphasised that while both states' laws prohibit police from conducting full searches, the NSW version ambiguously allows police to request the production of items detected by the scanner, which potentially could be exploited.
“The Queensland legislation makes that very clear but the NSW legislation leaves that ambiguous enough that you could see this power being abused by police,” Lee said. “Any additional police powers are going to impact those who are in the most vulnerable circumstances.”
Lee urged the NSW government to clearly delineate police powers and adopt Queensland's detailed annual reporting requirements. Queensland's laws mandate the publication of statistics on scans and knives found; Lee recommended NSW include specific data on children and First Nations people subjected to scans.
The legislation follows last year's controversial doubling of penalties for knife possession, criticised as a reactionary measure given the long-term decline in knife crime.
Josh Pallas of the NSW Civil Liberties Council, who opposed the laws, argued that the recent high-profile crimes despite increased penalties demonstrate that punitive measures are not the solution.
“We just fundamentally don’t think that a criminalisation approach works in terms of mitigating the risk of people carrying knives and stabbing people on the streets,” he said.
Pallas said he was alarmed that NSW had not implemented the same legal safeguards as the Queensland laws.
“We would be alarmed if NSW exceeded an already draconian power in another state,” he said.
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