1 in 10 People Scanned for Weapons in Queensland Are First Nations

In Queensland, Australia, police have the power to scan people for hidden weapons in public places without a warrant. New statistics show that more than one in 10 people scanned identified as First Nations — meaning Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. That is a much higher share than their 4.6 per cent share of Queensland's total population, and the gap is raising serious concerns among legal experts and community advocates.

Between July 18, 2025, and June 30, 2026, police carried out 160,997 scans across the state. Of those, 17,909 people — about 11 per cent — identified as First Nations. Another 49 per cent identified as non-Indigenous, and 39 per cent either did not state their status or it was not recorded. It is also important to know that some people may have been scanned more than once during this period.

The scanning program is called Jack's Law. It was named after 17-year-old Jack Beasley, who was stabbed and killed on the Gold Coast in 2019 while out with friends. The law gives police the power to use a handheld wand — a device that detects metal — to search people in public places without needing a specific reason to suspect them. In June of the previous year, the Queensland government made these powers permanent and expanded the types of places where police can use them, such as shopping centres and public transport stations.

Since Jack's Law was expanded, police say 1,270 weapons have been found and 2,497 people have been charged with nearly 5,000 offences as a result of wanding. Supporters of the law say it is helping to keep communities safe. Ben Cannon, a co-founder of an organisation called Voice for Victims, said the laws came about because of 'some really tragic incidents' and worries about knives being carried in public. He said that while some people may feel frustrated by being scanned, getting dangerous weapons off the streets is worth the effort.

However, legal experts say the numbers point to a troubling pattern. Greg Shadbolt is the principal legal officer at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (ATSILS) in Queensland. He said the figures were 'certainly concerning' because First Nations people are being scanned at about two and a half times the rate you would expect. He also said the organisation was never against measures to reduce knife violence, but the data raised questions about fairness and cultural stereotyping.

George Newhouse, who leads a human rights law firm called the National Justice Project, shared similar concerns. He said lawyers working with First Nations communities know that these police interactions do not happen in isolation. 'First Nations people are already disproportionately represented throughout the criminal justice system,' he said. He questioned whether police were using their powers in a way that pulled Aboriginal people into the system more often, or whether they were focusing operations in areas where more Aboriginal people live.

Queensland Police said their scanning operations are 'intelligence-led,' meaning they are based on information about crime in specific locations. A police spokesperson said decisions about where and when to scan people are based on 'operational intelligence and community safety considerations, not the demographic characteristics of individuals.' Queensland Police Minister Dan Purdie said the government had listened to the community and frontline police, and would keep working to make Queensland safer.

Criminologist Nadine Connell from Griffith University, who studied the wanding program during its trial phase, said the statistics are not a perfect picture. She explained that racial or cultural identity data depends on people choosing to identify themselves, which is not always reliable. She agreed there was an over-representation in the data — including among young people — but said some of this could be explained by looking at which areas police chose to focus their operations in. Still, the debate over fairness and the impact on First Nations communities is far from over.