The WA Government has been accused of overreach in its expansion of police powers. 

The state’s police minister this week announced that officers will be given more powers to search arrivals to Western Australia.

Police Minister Paul Papalia says the state was inspired by the powers granted to police during the pandemic, and wanted to mimic them for the long term.

“What happened when all the borders were shut tight, every single person coming into WA was met by a police officer,” he said.

“That had an incredible impact.”

The minister said not all travellers to WA would be met by police officers, but there will be more searches at airports, ports, railway stations and similar locations.

“It will enable a lot more power to search without warrant in certain locations, but there will still be obligations around who you search and why,” he said.

“It's very specific areas, very specific locations and it will all be predicated on intelligence in who you search.

“They're not going to be necessarily randomly stopping people.”

Mr Papalia said there will also be changes to the Surveillance Devices Act, which governs the use of recording and tracking devices in WA, including by police.

WA Police made headlines last year when it was discovered that they had accessed information provided to meet COVID-19 requirements for criminal investigations.

It is not clear exactly what the changes will be, but many expect they will include the power to search people’s phones. 

The Ethnic Communities Council of WA says the new powers would go too far, disproportionately impacting vulnerable minority groups and opening them up to the risk of racial profiling by police.