Six-month “designated area” across Melbourne CBD will intensify racial profiling, criminalisation and trauma — community legal centres warn of serious harms to people already facing crisis.
Community legal centres are concerned that the Victoria Police declaration of a vast “designated area” covering much of Melbourne’s CBD, Southbank, Docklands, major shopping centres and key transport hubs is a dangerous escalation of police powers that will disproportionately harm communities already over-policed and under-protected.
From 30 November 2025 to 29 May 2026, police and Protective Service Officers (PSOs) will have extensive powers to stop, search and detain people without any reasonable suspicion. The Federation cautions that these powers will not improve safety — but will instead deepen discrimination, trauma and barriers to justice for people experiencing homelessness, fleeing family violence, living with disability or mental illness, or belonging to racialised communities.
Community legal centres see first-hand the consequences of such over-policing: people are criminalised, traumatised, fined, displaced, and further cut off from safety and support, without evidence that these practices make our communities safer.
What the new powers mean
- Across these broad areas and for a period of six months, police will be able to conduct pat-downs, wand searches, bag searches and vehicle searches without cause or warrant.
- Officers can order removal of outer clothing and search personal belongings, seize items they suspect may be weapons, and demand proof of identity.
- These powers apply across a vast geographic area including workplaces, medical clinics, family violence services, shopping hubs, train stations and homelessness supports.
The Federation stresses that there are particular cohorts of people in our community who rely on public space. These include rough sleepers, young people, people in crisis and people fleeing violence. These groups are far more likely to be subject to these policy encounters.
Community legal centres have long raised concerns about the discriminatory application of police powers. The latest results from the Centre Against Racial Profiling (CARP) confirm these concerns:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are 15 times more likely to be searched than people perceived as white.
- People perceived as African are 9 times more likely to be searched.
- Middle Eastern and Pacific Islander communities are 5 times more likely to be searched.
- Yet, racialised communities are less likely to be found with prohibited items — meaning they are subjected to more searches with less justification.
- Use-of-force disparities remain severe: police are 10 times more likely to use force against Aboriginal people, and tasers are deployed at rates up to 13 times higher for Aboriginal people than white people.
Community legal centres work with people who will be most harmed by these powers: people escaping family violence, often forced into the CBD to access courts, emergency accommodation or services
- people experiencing homelessness or rough sleeping, who will face repetitive police contact and displacement
- people in acute mental health distress
- people living with disability or cognitive impairment
- international students, newly arrived migrants and refugees facing language barriers, trauma histories and visa insecurities
- young people and children who already experience disproportionate police contact
- LGBTIQ+ people, sex workers and others historically subject to discriminatory policing.
For many, a single police encounter can escalate into criminalisation, fines, increased surveillance, or loss of housing or income. This blanket approach is not equal, it targets people experiencing extreme vulnerability, undermines trust in safety systems, escalates trauma, and will worsen racial profiling. It has been introduced despite there being no evidence to suggest that the approach is effective in improving community safety.
We’re calling for an immediate reversal or meaningful narrowing of the six-month designated area announcement and a return to targeted, evidence-based policing requiring reasonable suspicion.
We also urge the government to establish independent oversight on all stop-and-search and use-of-force practices, and a statewide plan to eliminate racial profiling.
Louisa Gibbs, CEO at the Federation said:
“There is no evidence that expanded police powers will be a path to safety — but there is clear evidence that they are a path to increased discrimination, trauma and criminalisation for some members of our community.
“Safety comes from providing appropriate support, housing, health care and social services. We ask the government to follow the evidence and to invest in community safety measure that work - mental health support, homelessness services, violence prevention, youth outreach and Aboriginal-led initiatives.”
Lee Carnie (they/them), CEO at Youthlaw, said:
“Blanket search powers across the entire CBD are an extreme response that will fall hardest on young people, especially young people of colour and young people experiencing homelessness. This 6-month declaration erodes fundamental human rights to privacy and protest without evidence these measures are reasonable, necessary or effective."
“Community safety and human rights are not mutually exclusive. A city-wide no-reason search zone is a blunt instrument that undermines both. Effective policing must be targeted and proportionate - not a dragnet that leaves marginalised young people at higher risk of over-policing and feeling unsafe at a time when confidence in police is already low.”
Nerita Waight, CEO at Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) said:
“VALS is incredibly concerned to see the amalgamation of reforms pass Parliament this week which will only intensify discriminatory policing and surveillance to those that have always been unfairly targeted. This is an overreach of police powers and will result in more unchecked, and racialised policing practices. The combination of warrantless searches by Police and expanding PSO powers are a recipe for disaster, particularly for communities who are often the victims of systemic racism in policing.
History, evidence, data and truth-telling will tell us that the implications of these powers will deeply affect Aboriginal communities. We are all too familiar with the potentially life-threatening consequences of coming into contact with racist policing practices, including the increased risks of physical and psychological harm and deaths in custody.
The Victorian government’s pursuit of becoming a police state for the sake of votes, should be a cause of concern for everyone.”
Nadia Morales, CEO at Inner Melbourne Community Legal which runs to Police Accountability Project said:
"Melbourne is a great city and people should be free to enjoy it without their human rights being breached. Everyone has a right to privacy and freedom of movement.
"The designation of areas is unnecessary, ineffective and harmful. Police already have sufficient powers to search anyone they suspect has committed an offence. Police have shown repeatedly they have failed to address racial profiling. Victoria need greater oversight of police discretion, not less."
