2SER: Police use of extraordinary search power raises alarm bells

In Australia, we take it for granted that police can’t search us without a warrant, or a good reason.

But there is an extraordinary search power that NSW Police are using to search a person, and the car or place they are in at any time, without either a warrant or even a reasonable suspicion the person has done anything wrong.

Police can use this search power once a person is subject to a Firearms Prohibition Order, or ‘FPO’. Police say these searches are necessary for community safety – but legal experts argue the power is being misused to target already overpoliced communities. And that it is not doing the job it is supposed to do.