Page 1390 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 5 June 2007
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Report 6
MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (10.33): I present the following report:
Legal Affairs—Standing Committee—Report 6—Police Powers of Crowd Control, dated 15 May 2007, together with a copy of the extracts of the relevant minutes of proceedings—
I seek leave to move a motion authorising the report for publication.
Leave granted.
MR SESELJA: I move:
That the report be authorised for publication.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
MR SESELJA: I move:
That the report be noted.
In 2006 the legal affairs committee decided to consider police powers of crowd control in light of a capsicum spray incident at a Reclaim the Streets rally in October 2004. The inquiry considered police powers under legislation, mainly powers of arrest, and police powers emanating from other sources. Early in the inquiry it was evident that the majority of police powers in these situations are not set out in formal legislation but are to be found in the common law and in rules and procedures developed by the police themselves.
The inquiry became in effect an inquiry into police powers so far as public order law is concerned. It became clear to the committee that public order law operates similarly in all jurisdictions in Australia. The committee looked at operational arrangements in each of the jurisdictions, in particular the use of Tasers and capsicum spray.
The committee had some difficulty in getting hard data on the breakdown of the types of incident in which capsicum spray was used in the ACT, which is most often in domestic violence situations or in subduing prisoners. However, there was detailed data on the use of Tasers, given a trial which concluded last year and the resulting report which was made available to the committee.
The committee notes that the evidence suggests that in the overwhelming majority of cases police exercise their powers appropriately. Indeed, apart from the incident which sparked the inquiry, no evidence of inappropriate behaviour by police was put to the committee.
The committee also briefly considered police complaints and review mechanisms. In view of the recent federal legislative amendments to the Australian Federal Police complaints processes, the committee does not make any conclusions or recommendations in relation to processes in general. It does, however, register its concern at the complaints process which resulted from the incident at the reclaim the
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