Victoria Police has announced it has given itself greater weapons search powers for all of inner Melbourne – including the MCG, Docklands, Melbourne Museum, Southbank and South Melbourne – for six months from this Sunday.
From November 30 until May 29, police will be able to randomly search people for weapons with wands and pat downs, and request they remove items of outer clothing or turn out their bags and pockets.
Loading
That period is the maximum amount of time for which police can declare “designated areas”, under new state government laws aimed at cracking down on crime legislated earlier this year.
The news has prompted fierce criticism from rights groups and independent Senator Lidia Thorpe.“I think it’s outrageous, this is unprecedented police powers and [Victorian Premier] Jacinta Allan is throwing us all under the bus,” Thorpe told ABC Radio Melbourne today.
“We know that racial profiling is a massive problem in Victoria, so I see a lot of harm being done from these ridiculous powers.”
Appearing on the same station later, Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece had a very different take.“This is very much welcome,” he said.
“We’ve seen a 20 per cent increase in crime in the central city over the last 12 months, and we can’t keep doing things the same and expect things to change.”
Reece also said he agreed with Thorpe that non-white Australians were overrepresented in the justice system, but not with her claim that police officers were racist.
A Victoria Police spokesperson said: “these operations are an invaluable tool in assisting police with removing weapons from the streets, as knife crime in Victoria has risen.”
“Victoria Police has zero tolerance towards racial profiling.”
This image, provided by Victoria Police, shows the weapons they seized “during a weekend-long designated area operation which was run in Melbourne earlier this year”.
Weapons seized by Victoria Police during a weekend-long designated area operation in Melbourne earlier this year.Credit: Victoria Police