New South Wales Consolidated Acts

LAW ENFORCEMENT (POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES) ACT 2002 - SECT 87R

87R Power of senior police officer to make public safety order

(1) A senior police officer may make a public safety order only if satisfied that--

(a) the presence of the person (or class of persons) concerned at the public event or premises or other area concerned poses a serious risk to public safety or security, and

(b) the making of the order is reasonably necessary in the circumstances.

Note : Section 87S includes provisions about the content of a public safety order, including in relation to its duration.
Section 87T contains provisions concerning the service and notification of variations to public safety orders. In particular, section 87T(4) provides that a statement of the reasons for making or varying a public safety order must not contain information that would result in the disclosure of a criminal intelligence report or other criminal information held in relation to a person.

(2) In determining whether the making of a public safety order is reasonably necessary in the circumstances, the senior police officer must take into account the following matters and may take into account any other matter that the officer considers relevant--

(a) whether the person or persons to whom the order will apply previously behaved in a way that posed a serious risk to public safety or security or have a history of engaging in serious crime related activity within the meaning of the Criminal Assets Recovery Act 1990 ,

(b) whether the person or persons to whom the order will apply--

(i) are, or have been, members of a declared organisation (within the meaning of the Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2012 ), or

(ii) are, or have been, subject to control orders under that Act, or

(iii) associate, or have associated, with members of a declared organisation or persons subject to control orders within the meaning of that Act,

(c) if advocacy, protest, dissent or industrial action is likely to be the primary purpose for the person or persons to whom the order will apply being present at the relevant public event or premises or other area--the public interest in maintaining freedom to participate in such activities,

(d) whether the person or persons to whom the order will apply will be prevented from being present at any of the following--

(i) a place of work at which the person or persons are regularly employed,

(ii) an educational institution attended by the person or persons,

(iii) a place of worship attended by the person or persons,

(iv) a place at which the person or persons receive a health service or welfare service,

(v) a place at which the person or persons are provided with legal services by any Australian legal practitioners or by any organisations employing or otherwise using one or more Australian legal practitioners to provide such services,

(e) whether the degree of risk involved justifies the imposition of the prohibitions to be specified in the order (having regard, in particular, to any legitimate reason the person or persons to whom the order will apply may have for being present at the relevant event or premises or other area),

(f) the extent to which the making of the order will mitigate any risk to public safety or security,

(g) the extent to which the order is necessary having regard to other measures reasonably available to mitigate the risk.

(3) However, a senior police officer must not make a public safety order that would prohibit a person or class of persons from being present at any public event or premises or other area if--

(a) the officer believes that non-violent advocacy, protest or dissent is likely to be the primary purpose for their presence at the public event or premises or other area, or

(b) the officer believes that industrial action is likely to be the primary purpose for their presence at the public event or premises or other area, or

(c) the order would prevent them from entering their principal places of residence.

(4) A senior police officer must not make a public safety order if the period during which the order will be in force would, when added to the period of any previous orders made in connection with the same person or persons and public event or premises or other area, result in the combined period exceeding the maximum period of duration for the kind of order concerned referred to in section 87S(1).

(5) For the purposes of this section, the presence of a person or persons at a public event or premises or other area poses a
"serious risk to public safety or security" if there is a serious risk that the presence of the person or persons might result in--

(a) the death of, or serious physical harm to, a person, or

(b) serious damage to property.

(6) In this section--

"damage" , in relation to property, includes the following--

(a) destruction of the property,

(b) an alteration to the property that depreciates its value,

(c) rendering the property useless or inoperative,

(d) in relation to an animal--injuring, wounding or killing the animal.