Age (Australia): Police to have power to strip-search at random
| Some Proposed New Powers |
| – Police can search anyone in a ”designated area” even if officers do not have reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing – Designated areas can be: (1) Where there has been violence involving a weapon in the past year, (2) where police suspect there may be trouble, or (3) any major event precinct. – There are no limits on the size of a designated area, although it can only last 12 hours. – Officers can demand somebody ”move on” if they believe they may be going to commit a breach of the peace. Source: The Age |
The Age reports that police in Australia will soon have the power to strip-search people at random.
Police will soon have sweeping powers to search people at random, including strip-search, even if there is no reasonable suspicion those targeted have done anything wrong.
The ‘’stop and search” tactic is part of a law and order crackdown set to be passed by State Parliament, despite the Government conceding that the legislation breaches the Victorian Human Rights Charter.
Legal experts have labelled the proposed laws, which will enable officers to strip-search children and the disabled, as draconian and a knee-jerk reaction to the problem of drunken violence. [...]
Police Minister Bob Cameron says the wide-ranging legislation was necessary to maintain social standards, and the search powers were aimed at preventing an explosion in knife-related violence. [...]
But Mr Cameron’s claims have been rejected by senior lawyers who believe the ‘’stop and search” powers will be misused and are likely to target minorities such as the homeless, Aborigines, the mentally ill and the young.
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December 3rd, 2009 at 3:09 pm
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