NEW powers that would allow police broader scope to arrest young people have been compared with anti-terror laws.
Critics fear the proposed changes to the Youth Justice Act will create confusion.
Current laws say police should opt for cautions and diversionary measures and only arrest a youth for serious offences if they think the youth will "repeat the same offence" if not arrested.
But "same offence" would be extended to include all other serious offences, prompting fears the law is too broad.
The amendment has been criticised by the Australian Lawyers Alliance and Tasmania's Commissioner for Children Aileen Ashford. ALA criminal law spokesman Greg Barns, right, said yesterday the change could have serious implications for vulnerable youth.
Mr Barns said the amendment would give police the power to bolster their justification for arrest based on a further, more serious, offence that was not yet committed.
"These proposed new powers allow police to detain vulnerable young people, not on the basis of what they are alleged to have done but on the basis of what they may commit in the future," said Mr Barns, who is a columnist for the Mercury.
"The new laws will give police enormous power over vulnerable young people to drag them off the streets on the basis police think they are going to commit another offence.
"That is called preventative detention, it is what we see in anti-terror law."
Tasmania Police has not responded to requests for clarification on the amendment, indicating the Act was an issue for children and youth services.
But Children and Youth Services deputy secretary Des Graham said police had requested the changes "to clarify that a youth could be arrested for a previous serious offence if the arrest is necessary to prevent the commission of another serious offence".
Ms Ashford said the amendment would widen the circumstances in which a young person could be brought into the youth justice system.
"Rather, the focus should be on diverting young people, not increasing the circumstances in which suspicion is a sufficient ground to arrest a young person.
"The effect of it is to widen the circumstances in which an arrest may be authorised ...
"This is an extremely wide discretion and appears to be contrary to general principles of youth justice."
Mr Graham said the Act already limited the power of police to arrest.
"The amendment will not alter the fact that a police officer may only arrest a youth on suspicion of a serious offence and if one of a number of factors exist.
"It is important to note young people may only be arrested in relation to offences already committed, not offences they have not yet committed."
matthew.smith@news.com.au
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