Police have confiscated eight concealed weapons — including a knuckleduster and a machete — and charged 15 people as the result of a wanding blitz at Queensland's public transport stations and night club districts this weekend.
Under new laws that came into effect in early April, officers can use handheld metal detection devices (known as wands) to search people at all Queensland safe night precincts and public transport stations until 2025.
The legislation is named "Jack's Law", after teenager Jack Beasley who was fatally stabbed in 2019, and aims to prevent knife crime.
Acting Deputy Commissioner Mark Wheeler said police had been "relentless" in the two weeks since the powers came into effect.
Over Friday and Saturday alone, police launched searches at across 10 safe night precincts between the Gold Coast and Townsville as well as eight public transport stations.
In total, they scanned 530 people and found eight weapons, including box cutters, a knuckleduster, knives and a machete.
""If you're carrying those weapons, I can only draw one conclusion as to what your intent was," Deputy Commissioner Wheeler said.
"There's no reason to be carrying these weapons in public."
As a result, 15 people have been charged with a combined 26 offences.
"Some young adults in their late teens, older adults in their early 20s and also young people who were juvenile age, so 17 and under," Deputy Commissioner Wheeler said.
He said police also scanned 18 people at Redbank Plains train station (south-west of Brisbane) on Wednesday, where they detected another four weapons.
"That's a hit rate of about one-in-four people with a weapon," Mr Wheeler said.
Police Minister Mark Ryan said the results proved "Jack's laws are working".
"We can see them already making a difference for community safety," Mr Ryan said.
A self-perpetuating problem
Deputy Commissioner Wheeler said some offenders had claimed they were carrying weapons "for protection".
"Carrying a weapon for self-defence is not an excuse at law," he said.
"But that's the majority of the reasons that people give, particularly young people, 'We have to carry a knife to protect ourselves because others are'," he said.
"What you then see is a self-perpetuating problem in that, 'I feel, that I must be armed because others are armed'."
This weekend's searches were conducted in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Townsville, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast, Logan, Toowoomba, Airlie Beach and Capricornia.
Police can conduct scans at all public transport stations and vehicles as well as safe night precincts.
The wanding initiative is currently in "trial form", and police only have the powers until 2025.
Meanwhile, the state opposition has repeatedly called for the powers to be made permanent.
"It's obviously the government's intention that we want these laws to be around," Mr Ryan said.
"But they are extraordinary laws and … we do have to get them perfect before we make them permanent."
