The suburbs where police are using new powers to fight knife crime

The western Sydney bus and train interchange where 19-year-old Zac McRae was fatally stabbed by four masked assailants last week has been subject to the most knife detection searches under new powers granted to officers after the Bondi Junction attack in April 2024.

According to figures from NSW Police, Mount Druitt (22 search operations) tops the list of suburbs targeted under the new powers, which allow wanding searches at shopping centres and transport hubs. Neighbouring suburbs Blacktown (15 search operations) and Parramatta (nine) round out the top three.

Police have conducted metal wanding searches without a warrant at the Mount Druitt terminal every day following McRae’s death last Wednesday night. The attack has been linked to a flare-up of Sydney’s postcode wars, with police probing tensions between the Doonside-linked 67 gang and the rival Mount Druitt “Ready For Anything” gang.

The new laws passed NSW Parliament in June last year following a similar scheme introduced in Queensland named after Jack Beasley, a teenager who died in a stabbing attack on the Gold Coast in 2019.

Western Sydney has been subject to the highest number of searches – 177 search operations across the state have so far taken place – while Central Station (five) and Bondi Junction Westfield (four) have also been designated for wanding on a handful of occasions.

Albury and Wagga Wagga (five each) have faced the highest number of search operations in the regions, with police also conducting metal wanding in Ballina (four), Lismore (four) and Wollongong (three).

However, the Herald can reveal that fewer than 1 per cent of searches conducted under “Jack’s Law” have resulted in a punishment, as more charges are laid for non-weapons charges than weapons charges following the wanding operations.

Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show that 160 convictions and punishments were brought following more than 18,000 wanding searches from December to July. Most punishments (116) were fines, but they also included six prison sentences, four intensive correction orders and four conditional release orders, as well as community correction orders.

Just 92 weapons charges were brought in the same period, producing a 0.5 per cent strike rate, while 142 individuals faced a separate charge after being searched without a warrant.

Police found 194 knives and 13 other weapons – including axes, machetes, knuckle dusters, Tasers and a firework – in all wanding operations at shopping centres and transport interchanges in NSW.

Griffith University criminologist Janet Ransley, who reviewed Queensland’s 2022 wanding power trial, warned the searches weren’t preventing violent crime or weapons possession.

“If the goal was to reduce violent crime and the repetition of incidents like Bondi Junction, then it is a massive fail,” she said.

“We are not seeing evidence that people are carrying weapons any less, what we are seeing is improved detection, but it’s not acting as a deterrent, and weapons are easily replaced.”

Ransley urged police to only conduct knife wanding operations in areas where there is data underpinning the reasoning for searches.

“Knife carrying is not a problem everywhere … they [police] should be able to use their intelligence databases to identify those hotspots and then there is a rationale,” Ransley said.

“You’d have to ask, is that the best use of policing resources when there are lots of other crime and social problems that they could be dealing with?”

The scourge of knife violence was highlighted at the nearby Merrylands train station this week. A 16-year-old was rushed to hospital on Monday following an alleged stabbing by two males who fled. Two 17-year-olds have been charged over the attack.

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley backed the search powers, saying they were helping make “NSW a safer place”.

“Since wanding operations began, officers have taken more than 200 dangerous weapons off our streets – this is life-saving work,” Catley said.

Police will deliver presentations about the dangers of knife crime at 12 schools in Sydney and Wollongong this week, including in Mount Druitt and Bankstown, alongside the parents of Jack Beasley, Belinda and Brett Beasley.

It follows two weeks of presentations to 3100 students at eight schools in regional NSW, including in Grafton, Kempsey, Armidale and Wyong.

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