Feature
Voice note update on designated areas in Naarm
Listen to full voice note here:
Full Voice Note
Full transcript of voice note
Hi everyone. I'm Ilo Diaz, a worker from the Centre Against Racial Profiling. I wanted to jump on and just have a quick update on the designated areas and where we're up to on that.
So as everyone knows, designated areas are places where police can search you without a reasonable cause, or what we call reasonable suspicion, and without a warrant. You know, we've seen them a lot in Melbourne and around protest spaces, but a lot in racialised areas. We released this report a few months ago, or a month ago, around the racialisation of designated areas. So we know what designated areas are and what the impact is. I wanted to jump on and talk about what's happening with them at the moment.
So Human Rights Law Centre, along with Tarneen and Benny and a few others, had a massive win in the courts a few weeks ago, challenging the designated area in the CBD against Victoria Police. Now they've won, what that means is that Victoria Police are actually currently reviewing the other designated areas that are currently still in place. So we have a few. We've got Bayside Centre in Frankston original notice, amended notice. We have Pacific Werribee in Hoppers Crossing. We've got Eastland Shopping Centre, Northland Shopping Centre, Fountain Gate Shopping Precinct, and we've got Highpoint. Now, all of these are in place or have been in place for three months.
What VicPol have told us is that they're reviewing these designated areas, and they are checking to see what the court case outcome means for these designated areas. And while they're doing that review, they've told us that they've asked police officers not to use those powers in these areas. They have not cancelled these designated areas. They are just reviewing them, so those powers still exist. They've just asked police not to use it. So caution out there. Just because they've said they're not going to use it doesn't mean they won't. So keep an eye out on that.
Okay, the other thing we are going to keep an eye on is to see if there's any more designated areas come up. Even though they're reviewing these designated areas, it looks like they're still using those powers for other spots. So Sunshine was one recently, as well as Morwell. And keep an eye out for any more designated areas coming out this week around the protests, and potentially police trying to put back the designated areas in the Melbourne CBD.
Follow the Centre Against Racial Profiling on Instagram for designated area alert updates.