The Victorian Greens have accused Labor of lurching even further to the right, abandoning evidence-based community safety and copying the Liberals’ agenda, after Premier Ben Carroll announced sweeping new police stop-and-search powers that his own government previously rejected.
Labor has today promised to introduce “Jack’s Law”, giving police expanded powers to randomly scan people for weapons in public places without reasonable suspicion.
The policy was first promised by the Victorian Liberals last year and had previously been resisted by the Labor Government.
It comes despite a Griffith University evaluation of Queensland’s original Jack’s Law trial finding no evidence that wanding deterred knife carrying or reduced violent offending.
Researchers have also warned that broad discretionary search powers carry risks of racial profiling and disproportionately pulling marginalised communities into the criminal justice system.
In Victoria, data on existing designated-area stop-and-search powers found prohibited items in only just over one per cent of searches.
As stated by Victorian Greens justice spokesperson Katherine Copsey:
“Labor is now just copying whatever the Liberals announce. Instead of asking what actually works to prevent violence, Ben Carroll has Labor locked in a law-and-order bidding war with the Liberals over who can hand police more powers.
“We’ve seen this movie before. Labor copies the Liberals’ slogans, copies their policies and then calls it a plan for community safety, regardless of what the evidence says.
“The Queensland review found no evidence these powers reduced violent offending or even deterred people from carrying knives. Here in Victoria, existing stop-and-search powers find prohibited items in barely one per cent of searches.
“When police are given enormous discretion over who they stop, young people, First Nations people and communities of colour can end up bearing the brunt.
“If Ben Carroll genuinely wants to make communities safer, he should fund the things experts keep telling governments about – early intervention, youth services, housing, mental health and alcohol and drug support – instead of another headline-driven expansion of police powers.”
