Mundingburra MP Janelle Poole announces permanency of Jack’s Law

With a decision from the Crisafulli government to make a knife detection law permanent, a Townsville MP says police in the city will now be empowered to enforce safety in all public spaces.

Mundingburra MP and Assistant Minister for Community Safety Janelle Poole with Acting Inspector Renee Hanrahan and Acting Senior Sergeant Andrew Rickerby at Mundingburra Police Station.

With a decision from the Crisafulli government to make a knife detection law permanent, a Townsville MP said police in the city will now be empowered to enforce safety in all public spaces.

A bill was introduced in Queensland parliament last week to make Jacks Law, which was created in 2023 following the tragic stabbing death of Jack Beasley on the Gold Coast, permanent.

The law saw police officers trained and equipped with detection wands to stamp out knife crimes across Queensland.

Former police officer, Mundingburra MP and Assistant Minister for Community Safety Janelle Poole said police will now have the power to utilise the detection technology in any public space.

“This has come about by listening to our community and listening to our police, listening to their needs so that they can do their job to keep our community safe,” she said.

Since Jack’s Law was introduced more than 100,000 scans have been conducted, and more than 2,804 people charged, with 1,058 weapons taken off the streets.

Acting Inspector Renee Hanrahan said the police service welcomes any opportunity to strengthen community safety.

“At the moment we are limited to our legislation locations, predominantly that means for us our Safe Night Precincts, our retail shopping outlets and our transport hubs,” she said.

“We would look to expand to those areas where the intelligence is suggesting to us that we need to provide a greater presence to ensure community safety.”

Acting Inspector Hanrahan said the expansion would allow police to be able to intercept persons with knives prior to them arriving in more populated areas.

“Our current officers are all trained in wanding so we would see it as an extension of their current duties and does not require significant addition,” she said.

“We’ve seen from the initial catalyst for this law itself how deadly knife crime can be, so we are keen to see more ability to keep our community safe with respect to knife crime.”

In regards to creating safeguards and not allowing unfair targeting, Ms Poole said the new laws will “not infringe on any extra civil liberties”.

“All it does is it extends the locations where a person can be wanded and it is for any adults, any juvenile,” she said.

Originally published as Mundingburra MP Janelle Poole announces permanency of Jack’s Law