The Tasmanian Government is committed to providing opportunities for community involvement in the development and ongoing review of Government policy and we are seeking your input on the proposed amendments to the Police Offences Act 1935.

 What is the Police Offences Act 1935?

 The Police Offences Act 1935 is a body of legislation concerning public order and safety. The Act prescribes for certain offences that are punishable summarily (in the Magistrates Court) and provides for certain powers for police and other persons. Various parts and divisions of the Police Offences Act 1935 relate to:

• drunkenness, vagrancy, indecency, and other public annoyances,
• offences relating to trespass to lands,
• offences relating to good order and safety,
• consorting,
• prohibited behavior,
• offences relating to the consumption, sale and supply of liquor,
• offences against public authority,
• injuries to property,
• offences involving vehicles, such as motor vehicle stealing and hooning,
• clamping, confiscation and forfeiture of vehicles,
• offences relating to computers,
• other miscellaneous offences,
• powers of police and other persons, such as arrest, entry and search, search warrants and infringement notices, and
• declaration of crime scenes and serious incident sites.

The current version of the Police Offences Act 1935 can be found on the Tasmanian Government website at www.legislation.tas.gov.au.

What is the purpose of the proposed amendments?

 Under the Tasmanian Government’s 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future, the Government has committed to making Tasmania’s communities and roads safer. The approach includes delivering on its election commitments to crackdown on hooning and motor vehicle theft and introduce an offence for road rage. Proposed legislation is also aimed at improving court proceedings and police operations, and to deterring offending through increased penalties for common offences. The proposed changes include:

• extending the definition of a public place to include public and passenger transport services and vehicles,
• introducing a new ‘road rage’ offence to target aggressive or irrational driving behaviour on our roads,
• increasing penalties for motor vehicle stealing, hooning offences, trespass with a firearm, property and assault offences,
• increasing penalties for carrying a dangerous article (such as a knife), and reducing thresholds for police to search a person if they have a reasonable suspicion a person may be in possession of a dangerous article,
• making it easier for vehicles to be forfeited to the Crown by increasing vehicle clamping/confiscation periods, and reducing the thresholds for automatic forfeiture of vehicles,
• improving evidentiary provisions to make it easier for police to prosecute hooning through footage supplied by the public,
• the inclusion of mobile phones in the definition of a computer, for computer related offences, and
• improving evidentiary provisions as they relate to property complaints and consorting offences.

We are interested in hearing what you think about the proposed changes.  Public consultation period concludes at 4pm on Sunday 27 October 2024.

How to make a submission

We must receive all written submissions by 4pm on Sunday 27 October 2024

You can make your submission by:

EMAIL to submissions.strategy.support@DPFEM.tas.gov.au

* You can upload files of only docx, doc or pdf and not larger than 10 MB

POST to Submissions at Strategy and Support Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management GPO Box 308, Hobart, Tasmania 7001

Important: By submitting your file, you agree to its publication on this website.

Publishing submissions

Other than indicated below, submissions will be treated as public information and will be published on the https://www.police.tas.gov.au/.

Submissions will be published once the Government consideration of the submissions has concluded.

No personal information other than an individual’s name or the organisation making a submission will be published.