Victoria Police will inform the state’s anti-corruption watchdog it did not follow the law when it used sweeping powers to search people for weapons on 23 separate occasions eight years ago.
33 people were charged or fined as a result of non-compliant searches, police will contact all of them and inform them of the issue.
But potentially hundreds of people were searched without permission in legal breaches, some of which were revealed only after Guardian Australia contacted the force.
Eighteen discoveries were revealed during internal audits police conducted in all designated areas declared between March 2017 and March 2025.
The audit has been expanded after Guardian Australia asked the force about four areas named since September.
Four of those non-compliant actions and a fifth have been disclosed, and the audit is ongoing.
Under the laws, police can search, using an electronic wand or pat-down search, anyone entering a specified area during a specified period. Most of the searches are done under Operation Omni.
“Victoria Police is aware of the issues which mean that many weapon search operations are likely to be in full or partial non-compliance with legislative requirements,” a police spokeswoman said.
“Most of these issues arise from administrative errors such as public notices not including the name of the event where the operation was conducted.”
The four breaches uncovered by Guardian Australia were related to operations that were advertised on the Victoria Police website, but not in the Government Gazette, as is required by law.
The designated areas that Guardian Australia asked about preceded the protests in the Melbourne CBD on 22 November; Nov 15; 19 October; And 13 September. Other findings that were non-compliant have not been released.
The 19 October protests resulted in violence that was condemned by police and Prime Minister Jacinta Allen, and also resulted in injuries to protesters when forces deployed stinger grenades.
These searches took place under designated area laws that have recently been made more powerful.
Police said a small number of searches also took place outside of incident hours, and several operations conducted over several days were not linked to any incident as was legally required.
However, not every search conducted during the non-compliance campaign was affected, as police can still search people provided they have reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.
Police said, “The 33 people who have been either charged or fined at this stage have been adversely affected. This represents less than one per cent of searches during all weapons operations.”
“The community should be reassured that the majority of the 200 weapon search operations conducted over this period will remain lawful with no compliance issues.
“Victoria Police is in the process of writing to a small number of affected individuals and providing them with information on how to appeal any charges or seek a review of any fines.”
Victoria Police said the independent broad-based anti-corruption commission was also being notified and had strengthened its procedures.
It said recent improvements “will also help avoid future issues”, and clarified that a recently announced six-month weapons search operation in the city would not be affected.
But Ilo Diaz of the Center Against Racial Profiling said compliance issues showed police should not have been given increased powers.
“These invalid designated areas demonstrate that we cannot trust Victoria Police with these powers. Police do not have adequate guardrails on increased powers,” Diaz said.
“If these designated areas remain unchallenged, communities of color will be most affected. Unbridled power needs to be held to account, and this shows that if there were no people looking at the Government Gazette, this would never have been raised.”
<a href