Assessment Tool

Assessment Tool
Qualification national code and title 10262NAT Certificate III in Police studies
Unit/s national code/s and title/s POLJUS301A Apply key concepts in law and justice to issues
in policing
Assessment type ():
☒Questioning (Oral/Written)
☐Practical Demonstration
☐3rd Party Report
☐Other – Project/Portfolio (please specify)
Assessment Resources:
Access to Blackboard
Access to internet
Assessment Instructions:
Assignment Instructions:
You must answer all questions as fully as possible by referencing your Learner Guide and, where possible,
by further reading. You will find suggestions for further reading included in the learner guide.
A suggested minimum length is approximately 1000 words - this is offered as a ‘rough guide’ only. You
should feel that you have answered the questions as fully and as accurately as you can rather than simply
aiming at a set length.
Assessment Instrument:
1. The Road Traffic Amendment (Impounding and Confiscation of Vehicles) Act 2004 and
subsequent amendment legislation, commonly known as Hoon Legislation, empowers police to
impound vehicles that:
(a) are driven in a reckless manner,
(b) do a burnout; or
(c) are driven at a speed equal to or greater than 45km/h over the posted speed
limit.
This legislation was introduced to target organised street racing and reckless driving. In 2010,
amendments were made ordering police to impound vehicles for 28 days for the first offence,
three months for a second offence and possibly permanently confiscate them for a third. The
government has proposed the legislation be amended again to impose tougher penalties. The latest
proposed penalties, if introduced, will give police the power to confiscate a vehicle on the spot and
apply to the courts to have it confiscated permanently on the first offence (Stevens et al., 2015).
a. Do you have any comments about this law in light of your understanding of the separation
of powers?
The Road Traffic Act, 2004 is an amended version of Road Traffic act, 1974. This Act is come into the
force, by the initiatives of the Government of Australia to keep regulation on reckless driving, to keep
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Assessment Tool
Qualification national code and title 10262NAT Certificate III in Police studies
Unit/s national code/s and title/s POLJUS301A Apply key concepts in law and justice to issues
in policing
governmental control on speedometer of the vehicles and speed limit in road. This Act was amended and
came into the force by targeting solely upon the street racing and reckless driving tendency (Hufnagel,
2016).
b. Define the term ‘statute’ (the terms ‘legislation’ or ‘Acts’ have the same meaning). Name
two statutes that are relevant to policing. Explain why most legislation that is relevant to
policing is Western Australian (state) legislation rather than Commonwealth (national)
legislation.
Statue refers to the formal written enactment of legislation, designed by the legislative authority of a
nation for the purpose of governing the legal entities of a city, state, federal and country in accordance to
consent. Specifically, Statutes are nothing but a written format of rules made up by legislative authority
for the purpose of keeping regulation on society. For Example, WA Police Code of conducts, 2010, Police
Act 1892 are two types of statues- considered to be important legal framework for the Western Australian
Policing principles (Sarre and Putt, 2016).
c. An important legal concept that is relevant to policing is “duty of care”. This concept has
developed through common law. What is ‘common law’?
In tort law, duty of care is considered as legal obligation which imposed on individual requiring the
adherence to the standard of reasonable and meaningful care for ensuring the welfare of society and its
population. With the context of policing practice and duty of care it can be stated that a police officer
should be responsible enough to offer reasonable care to the individual to prevent the loss of life and loss
of damages of possession of people.
Common law can be defined as the body of the legal rules that is being set up by the judges as they issue
rulings regarding any case, or oppose a rule and law, set up by legislative authority or by the official
statues of a country (Sarre and Putt, 2016).
2. In Western Australia, under the Criminal Code Act Compilation Act 1913, graffiti vandalism
(graffiti) is a criminal offence The purpose of this Act is to reduce graffiti vandalism by:
 increasing penalties for existing offences
 further restricting the sale and display of graffiti implements
 giving the courts new penalty options including ordering the offender to pay
compensation to people who have cleaned up the graffiti
 and giving police the power to confiscate graffiti implements.
a. What were the steps in the legislative process that needed to happen for this (as a bill) to
become law in Western Australia?
The Legislative process:
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location: [insert filename and path of storage folder location] Current Version [of this template] V1.0 – 19-10-
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Assessment Tool
Qualification national code and title 10262NAT Certificate III in Police studies
Unit/s national code/s and title/s POLJUS301A Apply key concepts in law and justice to issues
in policing
1. draft of bill
2. House of Representatives
 presentation of bill for discussion
 First reading
 second reading
 consideration of the bill in detail or by veto (Stevens et al., 2015)
 third reading
3. senate (same process )
4. Governor general for the assent
5. law
b. The bill says that graffiti implements are defined by regulations. Any regulations made
under this Act would be an example of delegated legislation. What is delegated
legislation? What are the advantages of this type of legislation?
Delegated legislation is a form of legislation which is not made directly in form of Act by the Parliament,
rather under the observation of authority of an Act of Parliament. In delegated legislation, Parliament has
the regulative power to limit the governmental power for making certain regulation under the acts.
Advantages of delegated legislation:
 flexibility: easily changeable
 parliamentary supervision: affirmative or negative resolution
 judicial control: judicial review
 speed: such law ensure fast and effective implementation
 adaptability: easy to adapt by local council
3. You are the magistrate needing to decide the following hypothetical case:
Ms Brown is being prosecuted for driving under the influence of alcohol in breach of the
hypothetical section 40 of the hypothetical Road Control Act 1960 WA. Ms Brown agrees that she
consumed a significant amount of alcohol and indeed her blood alcohol level was .18. However
Ms Brown is pleading not guilty. The facts are that Ms Brown’s car had broken down and was
being towed by her friend in a ute using a tow rope. Police observed Ms Brown steering her towed
car which was swerving across the marked lanes on South Road, Mile End. When police stopped
Ms Brown (and her friend) they observed that Ms Brown smelled of alcohol and that her speech
was slurred. Ms Brown’s defence is that she was not “driving” as she was being tow. Section 4 of
the Act defines “driving” as being in control of the vehicle.
a. What is your decision? What rules of statutory interpretation do you consider and what
rule or rules do you use to come to your decision? (Answer this part on the basis that there
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location: [insert filename and path of storage folder location] Current Version [of this template] V1.0 – 19-10-
2016
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