Hundreds potentially affected by Victoria police weapons searches that breached law | Victoria
Victoria police will tell the state’s anti-corruption watchdog it failed to comply with the law when it used sweeping powers to search people for weapons in 23 separate incidents dating back eight years.
As a result of illegal searches, 33 people were charged or fined; All of these people will be contacted by the police and informed about the issue.
But potentially hundreds of people were searched without warrant due to legal breaches, some of which were only revealed after police contacted Guardian Australia.
18 of the searches were discovered during an internal police audit of all declared areas between March 2017 and March 2025.
The audit was expanded after Guardian Australia questioned the force about four areas identified since September.
These four improper operations and a fifth have since been uncovered and the audit is ongoing.
By law, police can search anyone who enters a designated area for a certain period of time, using an electronic wand or manual search. Most of the searches are carried out as part of Operation Omni.
“Victoria Police is aware of issues that mean a number of weapons search operations are likely to be non-compliant, or partially non-compliant, with regulatory requirements,” a police spokesman said.
“Many of these problems arise from administrative errors, such as public announcements that do not include the name of the event where the operation is taking place.”
The four breaches uncovered by Guardian Australia concerned operations that were publicized on the Victoria police website but not in the government gazette, as is legally required.
The designated areas Guardian Australia asked about preceded the protests in Melbourne’s CBD. November 22; 15 November; 19 October; And September 13. Other inappropriate searches were not published.
The 19 October protest led to violence condemned by police and prime minister Jacinta Allan, and also resulted in injuries to protesters when police threw sting grenades.
These searches were carried out under designated area laws, which have recently been strengthened further.
Police said a small number of searches were carried out outside event hours, and some operations carried out over several days were not linked to an incident as legally required.
However, not every search conducted during an illegal operation was affected; because the police can continue to search people if there is a reasonable suspicion of a crime.
“33 people have been negatively impacted at this stage, having been charged or fined. This represents less than one per cent of searches conducted during all weapons operations,” police said.
“The community should be reassured that the vast majority of the 200 arms searches carried out over the period remain valid with no compliance issues.
“Victoria Police is in the process of writing to the small number of individuals affected and providing them with information on how to contest any charges or seek a review of any sentences.”
Victoria police said the independent broad-based anti-corruption commission had also been notified and was strengthening its processes.
Stating that the latest reforms will also “help prevent future problems”, the organization announced that the recently announced six-month arms search operation in the city was not affected.
But Ilo Diaz of the Center Against Racial Profiling said compliance problems showed police should not be given more power.
“These invalidly designated areas show that we cannot trust Victoria Police with these powers. There are not enough guardrails on the police’s increased powers,” Diaz said.
“If these designated areas are not challenged, it will be communities of color who will be most affected. Unlimited power needs to be held to account and this shows that if it weren’t for people looking at the government paper this issue would never have been addressed.”
