Queensland Consolidated Acts

POLICE POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ACT 2000 - SECT 219

219 Powers under covert search warrant

(1) A police officer to whom a covert search warrant is directed may lawfully exercise the following powers under the warrant (
"covert search powers" )—

(a) power to enter the place stated in the warrant (the
"relevant place" ), covertly or through subterfuge, as often as is reasonably necessary for the purposes of the warrant and stay on it for the time reasonably necessary;

(b) power to pass over, through, along or under another place to enter the relevant place;

(c) power to search the relevant place for anything sought under the warrant;

(d) power to open anything in the relevant place that is locked;

(e) power to seize a thing or part of a thing found on the relevant place that the police officer reasonably believes is evidence of the commission of a designated offence or an offence relating to organised crime stated in the warrant or terrorism;

(f) power to photograph anything the police officer reasonably believes may provide evidence of the commission of a designated offence or an offence relating to organised crime stated in the warrant or terrorism;

(g) power to inspect or test anything found on the place.

(2) Also, a police officer has the following powers under a covert search warrant if authorised under the warrant—

(a) power to take a thing, or part of a thing, seized under the warrant, as a sample, to a place with appropriate facilities for testing the thing for evidence of the commission of the designated offence or organised crime or of terrorism to which the warrant relates;

(b) power to do any of the following in relation to a vehicle a police officer enters under the warrant if the police officer reasonably suspects the vehicle has evidence of the commission of the designated offence or organised crime or of terrorism to which the warrant relates in or on it—

(i) seize the vehicle;

(ii) take the vehicle to a place with appropriate facilities for searching the vehicle;

(iii) remove walls, ceiling linings, panels or fittings of the vehicle for the purpose of searching the vehicle;

(iv) search the vehicle for evidence of the designated offence or organised crime or of terrorism to which the warrant relates.