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Trade in Endangered Species Act 1989

Endangered Species Officers

37: Rights of entry

You could also call this:

"Inspecting places and vehicles to enforce endangered species laws"

Illustration for Trade in Endangered Species Act 1989

If you are an Endangered Species Officer, you can stop and enter any vehicle if you think someone has broken the law about endangered species. You can also enter any land or premises, including a house or a marae, if you have a good reason to believe someone has broken the law.

You can ask people for information and look at documents related to endangered species. You might need to get a search warrant from a court to enter some places, like a house, and you can find out more about search warrants in section 38(2).

If you take a sample from a live animal, you must do it carefully and not disturb the animal too much. You can find out more about how to do this in the rules about taking samples.

There are also rules about what you can and cannot do when you are investigating someone, and these rules are in the Search and Surveillance Act 2012, except for subpart 3.

You do not have to answer any questions that might get you in trouble, and officers can make copies of documents if they need to.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM146588.

Topics:
Environment and resources > ConservationCrime and justice > Police and safety
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"Police or special officers can arrest people who break endangered species laws without warning"

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38: Powers of search, or

"Searching places and things to protect endangered species"

Part 3Endangered Species Officers

37Rights of entry

  1. Subject to section 38(2) and notwithstanding any other Act, any officer who has reasonable grounds to believe that a breach of this Act or of any regulation made under it has been or is being committed, may at any time—

  2. stop and enter or board any vehicle:
    1. enter, pass across, or remain on any land or premises (including a dwellinghouse and a marae and a building associated with a marae):
      1. demand any information relating to that breach from any person in or on that vehicle, land, or premises and require such persons to produce—
        1. any permit or certificate granted under this Act; and
          1. any other documents relating to trade in endangered species:
          2. for the purpose of such analysis as the Director-General considers necessary to determine whether a breach of this Act or of any regulation made under it has occurred, take samples, subject to subsection (7), from any specimen in any vehicle or on any land or premises (including a dwellinghouse or a marae or any building associated with a marae) where the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that such specimen is evidence that a breach of this Act or of any regulation made under it has been or is being committed.

            1. Notwithstanding subsection (1), no officer shall enter any dwellinghouse or a marae or a building associated with a marae or, in the case of the exercise of the power under subsection 1(d), any other land or premises unless the officer is authorised in that behalf by a search warrant obtained under section 38(2).

            2. Repealed

            3. Repealed

            4. No person shall be required to answer any question by an officer if the answer would or could tend to incriminate that person.

            5. Any officer lawfully exercising his or her powers under this section may make or take copies of any document, and for this purpose may take possession of and remove from the place where it is kept, for such period of time as is reasonable in the circumstances, any such document.

            6. Every officer proposing to take a sample under subsection (1)(d) from any live animal—

            7. must do so either personally or, where requested by the owner or person in charge of the animal, by instructing a veterinary surgeon to do so; and
              1. must make every effort to avoid unnecessary disturbance of the animal, including, with respect to an animal which is secured within an enclosure, exercising his or her powers only during the hours of daylight except where the officer judges that there will be less disturbance to the animal if the powers are exercised outside those hours.

                1. The provisions of Part 4 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 (except subpart 3) apply.

                Notes
                • Section 37(1)(d): added, on , by section 9(a) of the Trade in Endangered Species Amendment Act 1998 (1998 No 17).
                • Section 37(2): amended, on , by section 9(b) of the Trade in Endangered Species Amendment Act 1998 (1998 No 17).
                • Section 37(3): repealed, on , by section 303(2) of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 (2012 No 24).
                • Section 37(4): repealed, on , by section 303(2) of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 (2012 No 24).
                • Section 37(7): added, on , by section 9(c) of the Trade in Endangered Species Amendment Act 1998 (1998 No 17).
                • Section 37(8): inserted, on , by section 303(3) of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 (2012 No 24).