Proposed laws to expand New South Wales police powers to randomly “wand” or “scan” people for knives without a warrant could lead to an abuse of power by the force, a lawyer has warned, due to ambiguous wording of the legislation.
The NSW legislation, which is due to be debated this week, was developed after the stabbings at Bondi Junction, Wakeley and Coffs Harbour.
It comes as knife crime in NSW has continued to trend downwards over the last 20 years, according to data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
The laws are based on Queensland’s Jack’s Law, which was introduced last year after a 24-month trial of the powers on the Gold Coast, sparked by the death of 17-year-old Jack Beasley in 2019.
But Sam Lee, a senior solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre who opposes the laws, said the proposed legislation has not applied the same legal safeguards as Queensland, which could leave the door open to an abuse of power by police.
Both states’ laws do not give police the power to conduct searches but Lee said the NSW legislation – which gives the police power to request the production of the item that has set off the detector – fails to make this explicit.
“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 is going to impact those who are who in the most vulnerable circumstances.”
Lee urged NSW to explicitly limit the police’s searching power and also follow Queensland’s lead in requiring detailed annual reporting requirements.
The Queensland laws require the police to publish in its annual report the number of people scanned and the number of knives found. But Lee said NSW should go further and include detailed reporting on the number of children and First Nations people subject to detection.
Earlier this month, the chief executive of the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS), Karly Warner, said introducing the laws in NSW would lead to Aboriginal people being “disproportionately and unfairly targeted”.
“We are all devastated by recent events where people have tragically lost their lives or been injured by knife violence but the proposed laws would not have prevented those incidents,” she said. “All they will do is force more Aboriginal people and other marginalised groups into contact with police.”
The ALS and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) are urging the bill be rejected entirely, or at least be brought in line with Queenslands laws.
“Parliament has an opportunity to improve community safety by funnelling much-needed resources into proven, community-led diversion programs. Why throw more money into failed law and order responses? Our communities deserve better,” said Jonathon Hunyor, the chief executive of PIAC.
Before the laws were expanded across Queensland last year, a review of the Gold Coast trial carried out by Griffith University’s Criminology Institute found no evidence that the scanners deterred people from carrying knives or had led to a significant drop in violent crime.
Last year, the government’s doubling of the penalties for people holding or brandishing knives drew backlash as a “kneejerk” reaction given knife crime was at a 20-year low.
Josh Pallas, of the Civil Liberties Council, who opposed the laws, said the fact raising the penalties did not deter the latest high-profile crimes showed punitive responses were not the answer.
“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.
The NSW attorney general, Michael Daley, was contacted for comment but did not respond before deadline.
