News and Events

The RLC Police Powers Clinic is an educational program run in conjunction with the University of New South Wales. UNSW students spend one day a week at RLC over a semester, putting their legal knowledge into practice working on police issues.

The new consorting provisions, introduced into the Crimes Act in 2012, allow police to label otherwise lawful associations a crime and to prosecute on that simple basis. The consorting provisions lack appropriate definitions, restrictions, and standards.

Tek sought advice from RLC after he sustained injuries when being ejected from a local police station.

The NSW Ombudsman released a report in August 2014, on the effect of expanded police powers introduced in 2011 to assist police responses to alcohol-fuelled violence, predominantly intended for behaviour in entertainment districts at night.

On 8th September, the NSW Parliament’s Select Committee on Social, Public and Affordable Housing tabled its final report after a wide-reaching inquiry. A number of submissions made by RLC during the inquiry were drawn upon in the final report.

In inner-city Sydney, a man in his 50s answers an unexpected knock at the front door. It’s the police, carrying a DNA sample kit and some paperwork. A document explains to the man that he has been classified as an untested former offender, empowering the police to collect his DNA.

RLC has experienced a recent spike in people contacting us for advice about DNA collection by NSW Police.

New legislation is being introduced to change the powers of police in variety of ways.

The New South Wales Government has passed further law and order legislation, with highly publicised mandatory sentencing legislation expected to follow now that parliament has resumed.

Two months before Barry O’Farrell announced the ‘one punch’ laws, he passed a different law that expands police powers to arrest without warrant.