Emergency Powers to Prevent or Control Disorder Review September 2007

The Part 6A emergency powers to prevent or control public disorder were enacted in direct response to mob violence that occurred at Cronulla, Sydney on 11 December 2005 and the reprisal attacks in Sydney's southern and eastern suburbs in the days that followed. The unexpected intensity of the violence and the speed and unpredictability of the attacks presented acute challenges for police. There were few precedents for policing this kind of apparently indiscriminate violence on such a large scale.Our review of the few occasions that police have used these extraordinary powers to date has found that police acted in a responsible and appropriate manner. The available evidence indicates that authorisations to use the powers were only granted in circumstances where senior police were genuinely of the view that other, less intrusive policing measures would be insufficient to restore order or prevent further attacks.