March 17, 2025 | Katie Wand
Today, the Victorian Premier announced a huge expansion of police powers, by extending the Chief Commissioner’s power to declare a designated area for police to search anyone without a warrant or reasonable suspicion of criminal activity from 12 hours to six months. These measures will be introduced through the Terrorism (Community Protection) and Control of Weapons Amendment Bill which is due to be debated in the upper house next week.
Today, the Victorian Premier announced a huge expansion of police powers, by extending the Chief Commissioner’s power to declare a designated area for police to search anyone without a warrant or reasonable suspicion of criminal activity from 12 hours to six months. These measures will be introduced through the Terrorism (Community Protection) and Control of Weapons Amendment Bill which is due to
be debated in the upper house next week.
This is the second time this week the Victorian Government has proposed a disproportionate and ineffective response focused on net-widening punishment, instead of evidence-based prevention. On Wednesday, the Premier announced that the Victorian Government would be reinstating former bail laws that were reformed in March 2023 after they were found by the Coroner’s Court to be an ‘unmitigated disaster’.
The Victorian community legal sector is alarmed by the Victorian Government’s announcement to rush another policy granting extensive additional powers to Victoria Police, without consultation or clear evidence that they will be effective. Police search powers allow police officers to detain a person for as long as necessary to do a search, request people to remove any face coverings (e.g. masks, scarves), conduct a pat down search, and issue charges and fines for refusals to comply.
This policy will result in significant over-policing and racial profiling, particularly for Aboriginal communities. Research has shown that extending “no reason” search powers fails to protect communities, while dramatically increasing stigmatisation of communities experiencing disadvantage. A recent Liberty Victoria report shows that warrantless and groundless stop and searches in planned designated areas make “finds” in just over one per cent of cases. The data shows that despite police officers in Victoria disproportionally targeting some racial minorities for warrantless
searches, the actual “find” rates of illegal weapons, drugs or items are actually lower than when police search people they perceive to be Caucasian.
Expanding police search powers will perpetuate systemic inequality, harm marginalised communities, and undermine fundamental values of justice, fairness, freedom and human dignity that create community safety.
The Victorian community legal sector is repeating our calls for the Victorian Government to rethink its position, and to commit to evidence-based policies that are proven to keep communities safe. We hope that the government will consult community legal centres on matters of community safety, and tap into the unique perspective of the community legal sector, which has acute visibility and understanding of the impact of laws on communities.
Louisa Gibbs, CEO at the Federation said:
“Community legal centres advocate for laws that are fair and effective. The proposed expansion of police search powers from 12 hours to six months in a designated area without a warrant or a shred of evidence that a person has committed any wrongdoing are the opposite of fair and effective.
“A six-month window for searches is not proportional, and there is an absence of evidence to show it will increase community safety. Rather, what it will do, is create environments of fear and harm for those groups in our community who already experience racial profiling by police. These are not the policy positions that are fair, effective, or in the best interest of Victorians.”
Nerita Waight, CEO at Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service said:
"Expanding police powers to undertake searches in designated areas for up to six months poses a significant invasion on people's liberties, Victoria Police do not need additional powers to undertake searches as it stands.
“The data indicates the success of finding concealed weapons in designated areas currently sits at 1%. If a community-led program was having this level of success we would be defunded, instead VicPol are seeking a license to continue to racially profile disadvantaged and marginalised peoples under the guise of community safety, without the results. What is the point of having a Charter of Human Rights if it is clear that the
Victorian Government and Victoria Police have no intention of upholding and protecting our basic human rights? This will create postcode injustice that is deplorable."
Nadia Morales, CEO at Inner Melbourne Community Legal, which runs the Police Accountability Project:
“Significantly increasing the time that police can designate common and widely used public areas such as shopping centres and railway stations will impact every Victorian and visitor to this state. It is a disproportionate response.
“By seeking to have such a dramatic increase in the timeframes for these powers to be exercised – from 12 hours to up to half of the year at a time - the government is in effect removing everyday protections by stealth.
“People who have never been targeted under the stop and search powers before could be in the future, putting our civil liberties are at stake.”
Maggie Munn, First Nations Director at the Human Rights Law Centre (they/them) said:
"Just one day after announcing dangerous, discriminatory and unjust bail laws, the Victorian Government is doubling down to give police sweeping new powers that we know will be disproportionately used to target First Nations communities.
“By handing Victorian Police such excessively broad new search powers, the Victorian Government is opening the door to the unchecked police harassment of First Nations communities, and greenlighting heavy-handed, discriminatory policing.
"It is particularly egregious that the Victorian Government is pushing through laws that will harm First Nations communities, without consultation, at a time when a Treaty is being negotiated.
“Harsh laws that target our communities are nothing to boast about. The Victorian Government needs to stop buckling to fear-mongering and prioritise real solutions that keep people out of the criminal legal system in the first place.”
For more information contact Katie Wand at [email protected] or on 0435 294 859.
