POLICE POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ACT 2000 - SECT 603 Power to seize potentially harmful things

POLICE POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ACT 2000 - SECT 603

603 Power to seize potentially harmful things

(1) This section applies if a police officer—

(a) finds a person in circumstances in which the police officer reasonably suspects the person is in possession of a potentially harmful thing the person has ingested or inhaled, is ingesting or inhaling, or is about to ingest or inhale; or

(b) finds a person in possession of a potentially harmful thing in circumstances in which the police officer reasonably suspects the person has ingested or inhaled, is ingesting or inhaling, or is about to ingest or inhale, the thing.

Example for paragraph (a)—

A police officer finds a person with paint on the person’s lips.

(2) The police officer may search the person and anything in the person’s possession to find out whether the person is in possession of a potentially harmful thing.

(3) If the person is in possession of a potentially harmful thing, the police officer may ask the person to explain why the person is in possession of the thing.

(4) If the person does not give a reasonable explanation, the police officer may seize the potentially harmful thing.

(5) It is not a reasonable explanation for subsection (4) that the person is in possession of the potentially harmful thing to inhale it or ingest it.

(6) On the seizure of the potentially harmful thing, the thing is forfeited to the State.

(7) Section 622 does not apply to a thing seized under this section.