Fitzroy Legal Service calls on Victoria Police to reverse its 6-month designated area declaration

27 November 2025

Fitzroy Legal Service is appalled by Victoria Police’s sudden, unilateral decision to declare the Melbourne CBD and surrounding areas a “designated area” for the next 6 months.

This unprecedented move means police and protective service officers (PSOs) will be able to stop and search anyone or their vehicle, without a warrant or reasonable grounds, within the Melbourne CBD, Docklands, Southbank, the sporting and entertainment precinct and parts of East Melbourne and South Melbourne.

Designated areas have previously typically only been declared for 1-2 days and have covered a much smaller geographic area where a public event or protest is occurring.

It is also Victoria Police’s 38th declaration this year alone. Between 2020 and 2024, they issued 30.

The declaration comes into effect from this Sunday 30 November 2025 until Friday 29 May 2026 – spanning the busiest time of year for foot traffic in the designated area. Anyone travelling through the CBD over summer, celebrating New Years Eve, enjoying the Australian Open, or visiting the city with their families during the school holidays, may be searched by police for no reason.

“While the declaration enables police to stop and search anyone, past experience shows that it won’t be implemented equally,” says Hamish McLachlan, CEO of Fitzroy Legal Service. “It will put our clients and community members, especially people who use drugs, people who are unhoused and those from culturally and racially marginalised backgrounds, who are already targeted by police, at even higher risk of discriminatory and unwarranted searches.”

According to new data released by the Centre Against Racial Profiling (Centre), people of Aboriginal, African, Pasifika, and Middle Eastern appearance are at least 5 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than White people. The Centre also found that in 2024, Victoria Police were 10 times more likely to use force against Aboriginal people than White people.

“The lived experience of many people from these ethnic backgrounds is of living in a police state, subjected to surveillance, unwarranted searches, and targeting by police on a regular basis. These measures make that reality worse.”

There are also real questions as to the lawfulness of the declaration. Under the relevant legislation, and Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights, the Chief Commissioner has an obligation to make the least restrictive order necessary, over the smallest area, for the shortest period of time, with the least number of powers. Instead, he has designated the whole CBD, for the maximum duration, and with all possible police powers.

“These maximalist measures, made without consultation or apparent justification, are harmful and authoritarian and reflect a tangible shift to entrench and extend police powers, not just in our city but across Victorian communities.”

“In a word they are Trumpian.”

Next week, the Victorian Government will likely pass legislation granting PSOs the same powers as a constable, including the power to carry weapons, arrest and hold people in custody, with a fraction of a constable’s training. This is in addition to expanding Victoria Police powers during protests. Parliament is also likely to pass youth justice law reforms, which will lead to 14 year-old children receiving life sentences.

“These legal and policy reforms, coupled with heavy-handed policing, ignore the root causes of crime. They ignore the fact that we are all safer when governments invest in stable housing, mental-health care and harm-reduction – not when they expand police powers.”