Dozens of weapons searches by police deemed unlawful due to blunders

Victoria Police failed to comply with the law when officers conducted dozens of searches for weapons over the past eight years due to a series of administrative blunders that have been referred to the state’s corruption watchdog.

The force has also launched a fresh audit of at least four operations in the Melbourne CBD over the past three months that might also have been unlawful because police failed to declare the designated search areas in the Victorian Government Gazette.

Victoria Police admits it might have conducted unlawful searches. Credit: Jason South

The non-compliant searches resulted in 33 people being charged or fined. All will be contacted by police and could have a basis to appeal their cases.

A Victoria Police spokesman confirmed the force was aware that “a number of weapons search operations are likely to be non-compliant or partially non-compliant with legislative requirements”.

“Most of these issues arise from administrative errors such as public notices not including the name of the event where the operation was held,” the spokesman said.

“Some more recent operations in the city were advertised on the Victoria Police website but not in the Victorian Government Gazette as was necessary.”

Police conceded that other searches, which were not connected to a particular event, or conducted outside event hours, also failed to comply with the law.

The force has vowed to review and strengthen its administrative processes, while also attempting to restore public confidence in the use of its search powers.

“At this stage 33 people who were either charged or fined are adversely impacted. This represents less than 1 per cent of searches during all weapons operations,” the police spokesman said.

“The community should be assured the overwhelming majority of the 200 weapons search operations conducted over the period remain valid with no compliance issues whatsoever.”

However, Dr Tamar Hopkins from the Centre Against Racial Profiling said the non-compliant searches meant Victoria Police should not have its powers further expanded.

“We know that these powers have very poor hit rates, with about 1 per cent of all people searched found to be in possession of a weapon. There is no justification for the government to legislate these powers,” Hopkins said.

“These findings demonstrate that Victoria Police cannot be trusted to comply with legislative requirements of rights breaching powers. Neither can the public trust them to otherwise fairly exercise these human rights breaching powers.”

The Age revealed last week that a disproportionate number of police searches of people from Aboriginal, African, Middle Eastern and Pacific Island communities had prompted accusations against Victoria Police of racial discrimination.

Research by the Centre Against Racial Profiling found people perceived by police to be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander were 15 times more likely to be searched than white people in 2024, but were less likely to be found with prohibited items, such as drugs or weapons.

The report, based on data obtained from Victoria Police under freedom of information laws, also identified racial profiling of African community members, who were eight times more likely to be searched by police than white people in 2024, but also less likely to be found in possession of banned items.

Those perceived to be African were seven times more likely to be the subject of a forceful interaction with police, who were also 24 times more likely to initiate a pursuit against someone of African appearance.

A police spokesman last week rejected the report’s findings and said the force had “zero tolerance towards racial profiling”.

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