Queensland Consolidated Acts

CRIME AND CORRUPTION ACT 2001 - SECT 100

100 General provisions about searches of persons

(1) An authorised commission officer lawfully searching a person under this Act 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 person’s dignity; and

(c) unless an immediate and more thorough search of the 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 the 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 paragraph (c)—

A more thorough search may be immediately necessary because the 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) an authorised commission officer of the same sex as the person to be searched; or

(b) if there is no authorised commission officer of the same sex available to search the person, someone acting at the direction of an authorised commission officer and of the same sex as the person to be searched; or

(c) a doctor acting at the direction of an authorised commission officer.

Example—

An immediate search by a person of the opposite sex may be necessary because the person searched has a concealed firearm or knife.