The following provides information on current issues relevant to the Security and Investigation Agents Act 2002 (the Act) in Tasmania from the Consumer Affairs & Fair Trading Department of Justice @ 1 October 2009.
Infringement Notices
As result of the introduction of the Monetary Penalties Enforcement Act 2005 Tasmania Police now have the power to issue infringement notices under the Act.
To avoid being fined you and your staff need to be familiar with the legislative requirements of the Act in particular Part 3 – Offences.
For instance, a Crowd Controller can be issued with a $200 infringement notice for not wearing their Identifying Number. The same fine can be issued to a Security Guard for not displaying an Identity Card. Not maintaining a crowd control register has more significant fines of up to $1000.
At the moment enquiries about infringement notices should be directed to the organisation that has issued the infringement, on most occasions this will be Tasmania Police, or the staff at Monetary Penalty Enforcement.
New Phamplets
For concise and up to date information about important aspects of the Security and Investigations Agents Act 2002, please take the time to review the new pamphlets.
They cover the topics:
• Eligibility and Qualifications
• Identifying number and crowd control register
• Wearing and producing your security licence
If you require hard copies to hand out to staff or trainees please contact our Community Awareness Coordinator at consumer.affairs@justice.tas.gov.au.
Complaints Notification
We extend our thanks to the concerned Tasmanian’s who have provided information about breaches of the Security and Investigations Agents Act 2002.
There are a number of details complainants can provide in order to reduce the cost and increase our success rate in following up your concerns.
While we prefer to receive reports containing the contact details of the complainant, we will also accept reports of an anonymous nature. The issue with anonymous complaints is that often they do not contain sufficient information to assist in any investigation. Before an investigation can begin detailed information is required about the nature of the breach, where it took place, what day and the name of the persons involved.
The volume of reports to Consumer Affairs is so high that priority is given to those issues of a more significant nature or those reports where there is the greatest likelihood of success. Therefore, if you are considering whether to report a breach of the Security and Investigations Agents Act please take the time to report as many of the critical facts as possible.