POLICE POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ACT 2000 - SECT 624 General provision about searches of persons

POLICE POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ACT 2000 - SECT 624

624 General provision about searches of persons

(1) A police officer searching a person must—

(a) ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the way the person is searched causes minimal embarrassment to the person; and

(b) take reasonable care to protect the dignity of the person; and

(c) unless an immediate and more thorough search of a person is necessary, restrict a search of the person in public to an examination of outer clothing; and

(d) if a more thorough search of a person is necessary but does not have to be conducted immediately, conduct a more thorough search of the person out of public view, for example, in a room of a shop or, if a police station is nearby, in the police station.

Example for subsection (1)(c)—

A more thorough search may be immediately necessary because a police officer reasonably suspects the person to be searched may have a bomb strapped to his or her body or has a concealed firearm or knife.

(2) Unless an immediate search is necessary, the person conducting the search must be either—

(a) a police officer of the same sex as the person to be searched; or

(b) if there is no police officer of the same sex available to search the person—someone acting at the direction of a police officer and of the same sex as the person to be searched; or

(c) a doctor acting at the direction of a police officer.

Example—

An immediate search by a person of the opposite sex may be necessary because the person searched may have a bomb strapped to his or her body or has a concealed firearm.