A Victorian Government election commitment to give police and protective services officers (PSOs) the power to randomly search people in public using metal detectors — without a warrant — will see Aboriginal people unfairly targeted, legal advocates say.

Premier Ben Carroll will announce on Wednesday that a version of "Jack's Law" will be implemented in Victoria if Labor wins November's election, allowing police to use handheld metal detectors — known as "wands" — to search people in public places for knives.

The policy, named after 17-year-old Jack Beasley, who was fatally stabbed in 2019, was first introduced in Queensland and has since been adopted in some form in New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania.

The policy has already been promised by the state opposition, meaning some form of "Jack's Law" will almost certainly be legislated in Victoria.

"Stop and search powers for knives is the new direction I'm delivering," Mr Carroll said, noting Victorians are "sick of knife crime".

The use of knife-wanding powers nationwide has attracted criticism, with opponents arguing they can infringe on people's liberty and raising concerns that police could use the powers to disproportionately target minorities and marginalised groups.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) said it opposed the proposed legislation, describing it as "another concerning indication" that the government "does not uphold its obligations under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities".

VALS CEO Nerita Waight said the election promise "will result in another costly failed initiative to achieve community safety".

"This is not informed policy making, this is copycat social policy making for votes. If this is what a government with integrity looks like, I suggest Premier Carroll go back to the drawing board before it's too late."

Victoria Police has faced accusations of racial profiling, with data obtained by the Racial Profiling Data Monitoring Project (RPDMP) in 2024 showing Aboriginal people were 15 times more likely to be searched than Caucasian people, and 10 times more likely to have force used against them.

The data showed "there is no focus by Victoria Police on reducing its disproportionate attention on First Nations and other racialised communities in Victoria", RPDMP founder Dr Tamar Hopkins told National Indigenous Times last year.

Victoria Police formally banned racial profiling in 2015 after settling a case involving allegations of racial profiling of African-Australian men, becoming the first Australian police force to formally define and prohibit the practice. They have a "zero tolerance towards racial profiling," a spokesperson previously told this masthead.

Under current Victorian law, police generally require a warrant or reasonable suspicion to search someone. However, they can declare a "designated area" under the Control of Weapons Act, allowing police to conduct searches without a warrant or reasonable suspicion during a specified period.

This was dealt a blow last year when an announcement of a six-month "designated area" for the Melbourne CBD was ruled unlawful by the Federal Court in a challenge brought by Gunditjmara, Yorta Yorta, Bindal and Meriam community organiser Tarneen Onus Browne and activist Benny Zable.

Ms Waight said the latest policy announcement "will be yet another example of the Labor government introducing laws as a workaround to the courts' rulings".

"Again, at the expense of actual community safety for all Victorians," she said.

Since being introduced in Queensland in 2021, several safeguards for "Jack's Law" have been relaxed. Police no longer need approval from a senior officer before conducting searches at licensed venues, on public transport, in retail premises or other designated areas.

Officers are also no longer required to provide people who are searched with written notice of the search.

Between April 2023 and June 2025, Queensland police cnducted 116,287 scans, arrested 3,080 people and removed 1,126 weapons — a detection rate of about 0.9 per cent.

There was no reduction in violence associated with the use of handheld scanners, according to Griffith Criminology Institute Professor Janet Ransley, who conducted a review of the 12-month trial of "Jack's Law" on the Gold Coast in 2021-22.

"There's also potential for bias when officers using the wands are influenced by factors that aren't related to evidence," she wrote in The Conversation last year. "This includes the unfair targeting of minorities. More people could also be caught up in the justice system for minor, non-violent breaches."

Ms Waight argued importing models which lack evidence of success "will cause harm and further criminalisation and won't achieve a reduction in violent crime".

"If this is what 'good policy' looks like to the Premier, then I implore him and his advisors to do the hard work of innovation rather than a Google search," she added.

Victorian Greens justice spokesperson Katherine Copsey said the government "has completely lost its way on community safety and is now just copying whatever the Liberals announce".

"When police are given enormous discretion over who they stop, young people, First Nations people and communities of colour can end up bearing the brunt," she said.

"If Ben Carroll genuinely wants to make communities safer, he should fund the things experts keep telling governments about - early intervention, youth services, housing, mental health and alcohol and drug support - instead of another headline-driven expansion of police powers."