Search and Surveillance Act 2012

Police powers - Warrantless powers to enter and search when effecting arrest - Stopping vehicle without warrant to effect arrest

10: Powers and duties of constable after vehicle stopped

You could also call this:

"What police can do after stopping a vehicle to arrest someone"

If a police officer stops a vehicle to arrest someone, they can do several things. They can ask people in the vehicle for their name, address, and date of birth if they think those people have escaped from custody or committed a crime. The police officer can also search the vehicle to find the person they want to arrest, or to find evidence related to a crime, but only if they have already arrested the person or seen them running away from the vehicle. If the police officer wants to search the vehicle for evidence, they must first tell the driver what they are looking for, unless the driver is the person they want to arrest. The police officer gets these powers from section 9 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012, which allows them to stop a vehicle without a warrant to make an arrest.

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This page was last updated on 24 May 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM2136641.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Police and safety

9: Stopping vehicle to find persons unlawfully at large or who have committed certain offences, or

"Police can stop a car to catch someone who has broken the law or is hiding from them."

11: Warrantless searches of people who are, or are to be, locked up in Police custody, or

"Police can search you without a warrant when you're in their custody"

Part 2Police powers
Warrantless powers to enter and search when effecting arrest: Stopping vehicle without warrant to effect arrest

10Powers and duties of constable after vehicle stopped

A constable exercising the stopping power under section 9 may do any 1 or more of the following:
require any person in or on the vehicle who the constable has reasonable grounds to suspect is unlawfully at large or has committed an offence punishable by imprisonment to supply all or any of his or her name, address, other contact details, and date of birth:
search the vehicle to locate the person referred to in section 9, if the constable has reasonable grounds to believe that the person is in or on the vehicle:
search the vehicle to locate property that is evidential material in relation to any offence in respect of which the vehicle was stopped under section 9, if the person referred to in section 9—
1. has been arrested; or
2. is seen fleeing from the vehicle before he or she can be arrested.

Before conducting a search under a power conferred by subsection (1)(c), a constable must tell the driver the object of the proposed search, if the driver is not the person referred to in section 9.