Police want permission to wand people inside Queensland shopping centres

Senior police want knife ‘wanding’ powers expanded to a growing crime hotspot as they mark the first anniversary of Jack’s Law with a massive haul of illegal weapons.

Senior police want knife “wanding” powers expanded to shopping centres as soon as possible as they mark the first anniversary of the historic Jack’s Law with a massive haul of illegal weapons.

Officers hailed the success of the one-year-old legislation, named after Gold Coast teen Jack Beasley who was stabbed to death in Surfers Paradise in December 19.

His parents, Brett and Belinda, launched the Jack Beasley Foundation following his death to lobby for police to be equipped with metal detectors to help crack down on knife crime.

Police said that since Jack’s Law was introduced in March last year, 508 weapons ranging from box cutters and screwdrivers to tomahawks, butcher’s knives and large machetes had been taken off the streets.

Youth Crime Taskforce Acting Assistant Commisioner Andrew Massingham. Picture Lachie Millard

More than 50,000 people have been scanned on public transport and in the state’s safe night precincts, with almost 1400 charged with 2469 offences.

Speaking alongside Belinda Beasley on the Gold Coast, where wanding was first trialled in 2021/2022, police Youth Crime Taskforce Acting Assistant Commisioner Andrew Massingham said Jack’s Law had been a major success and police were keen to see its powers widened to allow them to scan people in shopping centres.

Police wanding in Surfers Paradise.

He said police had made a submission to state cabinet and were hopeful of gaining the increased powers “in the near future”.

“That is what we have asked for – this is a very powerful way of ensuring our community is safe,” he said.

Jack Beasley’s parents Brett and Belinda. Picture: Regi Varghese

“For more than 500 weapons to be taken off the streets in a year, that’s 500 potential acts of violence disrupted, and people protected.”

Some frontline police are concerned that expanded Jack’s Law powers will place further strain on already stretched resources and risk a civil liberties backlash.

But Mr Massingham said wanding operations could only be authorised in response to serious crimes in an area and would not take precedence over high-priority police jobs.

He said he could “count on one hand” the number of complaints police had received about the wanding operations, which do not require search warrants.

Police are seeking extra powers in a bid to stamp out youth crime around Queensland shopping centres.

Mr Massingham said police wanted the extra powers because armed robberies and other crimes were occurring at shopping centres.

“It’s not a case that we would go into a shopping precinct carte blanche and wand everybody,” he said.

“It’s very much a targeted, intelligence-driven operation.”

Mrs Beasley said she and her husband were “gobsmacked” at the amount of weapons being seized would like every police officer in the state to be equipped with a metal detector.

“But if we can at least get it to more public places, I think that would be a really good step,” she said.

Originally published as Police want permission to wand people inside Queensland shopping centres