Liberty Victoria and the Rights Advocacy Project - Statement on proposed expansion to police designated area search powers

Liberty Victoria and the Rights Advocacy Project are deeply concerned about the proposal to expand Victoria Police’s existing designated area search powers under the Control of Weapons Act 1990, which allow for the stopping and searching of any individual in a specific area without a warrant or any reasonable grounds.

The existing designated search area powers are already significantly problematic and have the potential to facilitate the targeting of specific areas and members of the community, and there is little evidence of their effectiveness. Concerns have also been raised that these powers are being improperly used as a means of protest control, to target otherwise lawful gatherings of citizens. Such use is well beyond the intended justification for their enactment and impinges upon rights to freedom of association and political expression.

Information obtained by Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project revealed that searches conducted under the existing designated search area powers from January 2021 to January 2023 found illicit objects or substances just 1% of the time.

Across that time, Victoria Police conducted nearly 24,000 warrantless searches of individuals in 61 designated search areas under the scheme.

Just 250 of these searches led to “objects or substances being found” - a stunningly low success rate. This means that just over 1% of all searches conducted under the scheme in the two years to January 2023 could be measured as a “success”.

These figures should be cause for concern and lead to a fundamental rethink of the need for these powers, rather than a push for further expansion and police powers.

Before any proposals are considered to expand these powers, there needs to be a proper investigation into the effectiveness of the existing powers and whether they are proportionately required, considering the major impacts they are having on the civil liberties of Victorians.

When introducing the current search area scheme, the Victorian government acknowledged that several aspects of the scheme were incompatible with the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006, something which should have contributed towards a significant rethink of any such policies.

Any potential expansion to these search powers will likely also be in breach of the Charter and should be rejected.

Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project has been investigating Victoria Police’s designated area search powers for more than 18 months as part of a report into Victoria Police’s power to conduct searches without reasonable grounds or a warrant, and the impact of this on individuals. The report will be released later in 2024.

The current designated area search powers allow Victoria Police to designate a public area for up to 12 hours and search any individual in this area. These powers were ostensibly introduced to target the possession of knives, but any illegal object, including drugs, can lead to charges for the individual. The consequences for being found in possession of illicit items can be severe and in some cases even result in custodial penalties being imposed.

To designate an area, Victoria Police must satisfy certain, extremely broad, criteria and then advertise the designation in the government gazette and daily newspaper at least a week before the designation takes place.

The proposed expansion to this scheme floated by the Victorian government last week involves a loosening of the already loose criteria for the designation of a search area, to make this process even faster and the designation last even longer.

There has also been a proposal for certain areas to be permanently designated as search zones, allowing Victoria Police officers to search anyone in these areas at any time without any reasonable grounds. This would represent a concerning erosion of the limited safeguards on the current scheme, put in place to ensure that only appropriate areas are designated for a finite period of time.

There is already a clause under the existing scheme that allows Victoria Police to make an expedited designation without any advertisement if it is urgently needed, and it is a basic civil liberty that an individual should not be searched by a police officer without any reason or warrant.

The proposed expansion is deeply troubling and unnecessary, and further encroaches on the civil liberties of Victorians.

There is little data around whether the existing scheme is effective at all in preventing knife crime and there is no evidence that exercise of this power makes the community safer.

Victoria Police does not release any data on its designated search area powers and the effectiveness of searches conducted as part of the scheme.

We call for a thorough examination of the current scheme, based on full and transparent data, before any expansion of these highly invasive powers is considered.

Quote attributable to Michelle Bennett, Liberty Victoria President:

“We have significant concerns with the existing designated search area powers in Victoria and the impact they are having on the civil liberties and human rights of Victorians.

“There is a near-complete lack of data on the usage of these powers and the effectiveness of searches conducted under them, leaving it nearly impossible to evaluate their success. There should be a fulsome and thorough review of their effectiveness, based on comprehensive data, before any proposals to expand these powers are considered at all."

Joseph Cook, Rights Advocacy Project

"Information that has been uncovered by the Rights Advocacy Project shows a stunningly low 'success' rate for searches conducted in designated search areas, one that cannot be used to justify these significant incursions on civil liberties and should be cause to pause any thoughts of expanding them.

“Conducting a search on an individual without any reasonable grounds or a warrant is a major incursion on human rights and something which should be avoided wherever possible. The proposal to make it easier to designate areas as search zones or make these designations permanent would not be a proportionate response and would be unlikely to be successful, as shown by the data unearthed by the Rights Advocacy Project.”