Knife-wanding: Police conduct 30,000 scans and confiscate 90 blades three months after introducing new laws

More than 300 people have been charged with knife possession offences under WA’s tough new blade laws. WA Police said officers had conducted more than 30,000 scans for edged weapons and confiscated almost 90 blades in the three months since Australia’s toughest knife laws were introduced. Since December, 354 people had been charged over 561 knife possession-related offences. The reform — named “Jack’s Law” after a 17-year-old Queenslander who was stabbed to death in 2019 — allows cops to wand people for edged weapons in “protected entertainment precincts” like Northbridge, Fremantle and Scarborough. Anyone illegally caught with a knife can face up to three years in jail and a $36,000 fine. Those who refuse to be wanded can be fined up to $12,000 and jailed for a year. Officers seized 17 knives — including a small axe, pocket knives, kitchen knives and fixed-blade knives — on only the first night of the new laws. Over the first weekend, cops confiscated 21 weapons — including a tomahawk axe — and charged 35 people. Of the 35 charged, four were juveniles. “The sheer number of edged weapons seized from our protected entertainment precincts shows the risk that concealed knives have been posing to our community and our police officers,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Dario Bolzonella said at the time. “Our community is already safer as a result of these seizures, and we hope this sends a strong message to anyone irresponsible enough to carry a weapon. “We will continue to use the full suite of powers available to us to reduce the risk of knife-related crime in our community.” Police Commissioner Col Blanch said it was only a “very small number” of people carrying around edged weapons. “I think that is an important message to our community that there are still those in very small numbers that carry knives in our community,” he told 6PR earlier this month. “We’ve got to change the mindsets of those that think it’s okay to carry weapons in entertainment precincts.”