Victorian Police are to be given additional powers to remove people from police premises and stations under new laws.
Introducing the Justice Legislation Amendment (Police and Other Matters) Bill 2022, outgoing Minister for Police, Lisa Neville said that currently police could only remove antagonistic people from police premises if they had committed an offence.
“Under the legislation, police will have new powers to protect the security of police premises, including police stations, giving officers the ability to move people on who don’t have a legitimate reason to be there, or pose a threat to the peace,” Ms Neville said.
“The legislation also establishes a framework for the Restorative Engagement and Redress Scheme which supports current and former police officers who have experienced sexual harassment or discrimination in the workplace, providing more transparency around the eligibility criteria and increased privacy protections for participants,” she said.
“Police can currently only enter into agreements with commercial operators for additional police services inside events but cannot recover costs for services outside venues such as traffic management and managing crowd behaviour.”
Ms Neville said the reforms also delivered increased integrity measures to ensure police used and disclosed information appropriately, and gave the Police Chief Commissioner greater disciplinary powers where officers had broken the law.
She said the Bill enabled the Chief Commissioner to take more than one disciplinary action in response to a police officer or Protective Services Officer (PSO) who had a criminal charge proven against them.
The Minister said the Sex Offender Registration Act 2014 would be amended by the new legislation to support police to actively monitor registered sex offenders to reduce the risk of reoffending.
