The State Government today said the nation-leading trial to detect weapons and combat violence would cover safe night precincts, public transport, and public transport stations across the state.

The trial, introduced to cut escalating knife crime, will go for two years from early next year.
Since the initial trial began across two safe night precincts on the Gold Coast in May last year, police have charged almost 500 offenders.

Police Minister Mark Ryan said police from Cairns in the state’s north and west to Toowoomba where there were established safe night precincts, needed the extra powers the trial provided.

“I fundamentally believe that these powers will save lives and reduce violence on our streets,” Ryan said.

“These are exceptional powers, you don’t see powers like this in many places around the world.”

Trams, buses, trains and ferries, as well as public transport stations, will be included in the new trial.

“I make no apology for initiating powers such as these because community safety always comes first,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

Almost 200 weapons have been seized by police under the Gold Coast safe night precinct trial. Almost 16,800 people have been “wanded”.

Police have seized weapons including knives, knuckle dusters, a screwdriver, an axe, and even an ornamental letter opener that people had carried on a night out.

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Wheeler said there was no need for any person to be in possession of any weapon at any time.

“Anyone who brings a weapon of any description into a public place should expect to be approached by police,” Wheeler said.

“The message is clear – do not go into public with any object that can be used as a weapon.”

The state’s first wanding trial was launched following a spate of fatal stabbings on the Gold Coast, including the murder of 17-year-old Jack Beasley in December 2019 while he was on a night out with friends.

Brett and Belinda Beasley subsequently launched the Jack Beasley Foundation to lobby for the trial and tougher penalties for knife crimes.

The Beasleys have remained strong advocates of the heightened police action in the safe night precincts. Palaszczuk said the legislation giving effect to the expanded trial would be known as “Jack’s law”.

The random metal detection trial was expanded in March to around the clock checks in the two Gold Coast party zones.

The round-the-clock wanding remains in place.

In analysing the Gold Coast trial, Superintendent Rhys Wildman said the flow on effect of the police random metal detecting scans contributed to increased safety and plummeting rates of weapons and other offences in areas surrounding the city’s safe night precincts.

In Surfers Paradise, there was a 100 per cent reduction in armed hold ups and 850 per cent drop in wounding offences. Only two wounding incidents had occurred in the safe night precincts in the first full year of the trial, he said.