9News has been exclusively invited inside Operation Whiskey Legion, the specialist police operation smashing criminal activity across Queensland.
Officers targeted alleged criminals in the South Brisbane district this week, charging 420 people with more than 1000 offences.
Brett and Belinda Beasley, whose son Jack was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack by teenagers on the Gold Coast in 2019, were also invited inside the operation.
Jack’s Law, created in his name and passed in 2023, gives officers the power to search people for knives without a warrant.
“Since then, Belinda and I have been on a mission to stop this happening and change the law and we created and are very proud of Jack’s Law now,” Mr Beasley said.
“Too many lives are lost, and for knife crime, it just needs to stop,” Ms Beasley said.
“The more we can get out there educating people the better it is.”
Operation Whiskey Legion has already taken more than a thousand knives off the streets thanks to Jack’s Law. Queensland police said there was no reason for people to carry knives in public.
“Everyone has the right to go about their day-to-day business, without fear of crime,” Sergeant Kylie Doyle said.
“On a young boy, we found a 49-centimetre knife down the front of his pants.
“You don’t need to have a weapon in public, you don’t need them to be in your possession, leave them at home in the kitchen where they belong.”
Doyle said police had arrested 149 people on 414 charges by the second day of the operation.
The crackdown on knife crime is a key component of the week-long operation across the south Brisbane district.
While 9News was with police, officers seized three blades inside a busy Westfield Shopping centre.
“Why were you carrying that knife in a shopping centre?” one officer could be heard asking.
“Umm because I’m camping,” the man replied.
“I didn’t know that I wasn’t allowed to have a knife with me.”
At a nearby train station, a hunting knife was found tucked in the pants of a 30-year-old.
Police alleged the Regents Park man tried to run when he saw them.
He was cornered and arrested with a pocket knife in his bag.
Both men are now before the courts.
Operation Whiskey Legion recently surpassed 10,000 charges, but this is the first time they’ve crossed to Russell Island where wanding operations will now become a regular occurrence.
