Police mark another wanding milestone with operation in city mall

A group of armed and uniformed police officers, their fingers looped around their vests, stand at the edge of Queen Street Mall in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD, scanning passersby with intent.

One of the first to be stopped, a man in a flannel shirt and long work pants, crouches as a semicircle of officers instruct him to empty the contents of his backpack. Another in similar garb has his socks and pockets turned out at a nearby bench.

A man wearing reflective sunglasses and wielding a two-litre bottle of Ice Break is steered towards a garden bed, his belongings laid out next to budding marigolds.

An older guy in a Mickey Mouse crew neck and red sneakers submits to a small black handheld device with his arms raised, then offers a sardonic “yeah, yeah, good work guys” as he shuffles away.

A tall accented man in a grey hoodie looks confused by the sudden attention, and attempts to dodge the party of waiting officers. A long interrogation ensues, and he is eventually escorted from the precinct for public nuisance, but not before taking a prayer stance at their feet.

Two teenage boys smile as officers wave a metal detector wand over their bodies, offering encouraging handshakes before trailing off towards the old Treasury building.

Nearby, Queensland Police Minister Dan Purdie spoke of a significant milestone in Jack’s Law, legislation that allows police to use handheld metal detectors (“wands”) to search individuals in public places without a warrant.

The laws are named in honour of 17-year-old Jack Beasley who was fatally stabbed during a night out with friends in Surfers Paradise in 2019, and were expanded and made permanent by the Crisafulli government last year.

Since then, nearly 127,600 scans have been carried out by Queensland police, with over 1000 weapons including machetes, knives and axes seized.

“We never know what those weapons individually would have been used for,” Purdie said. “[But] this is another example of what we’re doing to drive down crime and keep our community safe.”

Based on the latest data, Jack’s Law has a detection rate of about 0.81 per cent. On top of the 1032 weapons seized, wanding efforts have led to nearly 2000 arrests and more than 3770 charges.

Previous analysis showed the majority of charges tended to be for minor drug offences, or breaches of knife-carrying bans.

Advocates have long called for police to undertake specialised wanding training, and for transparent data collection on who they stop, including age, gender and cultural background, while noting a lack of evidence that the laws reduce violent crime.

Jack Beasley’s father Brett, who has channelled the rage and grief of losing a child to a senseless crime into reform, described the milestone announced on Thursday as something he and wife Belinda “couldn’t be prouder of”.

“We’re hoping to [make] Jack’s Law a national law around Australia, to have every single police officer in the country to have the same powers as our Queensland police do,” Brett said.

“Every knife off the street is a life saved, as far as we’re concerned.”

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.