Search and Surveillance Act 2012

Enforcement officers' powers and orders - Surveillance device warrants and declaratory orders - Application for surveillance device warrant

49: Application for surveillance device warrant

You could also call this:

"How to apply for a special permit to use a surveillance device to help solve a crime"

If you want to get a surveillance device warrant, you must be an enforcement officer. You have to include some important details in your application, such as your name, the reason you are making the application, and the type of surveillance device you want to use. You also need to say what offence you think has been committed and what you hope to find out by using the surveillance device.

You must give information about the person, place, or thing you want to surveil, and what you think you will find out by doing so. If you do not have all this information, you must explain how you plan to do the surveillance and what you want to achieve.

You have to tell the court if you or someone else has made a similar application in the past three months, and what happened with that application. Before you make your application, you must ask around your workplace to find out if anyone else has made a similar application.

There are some special rules if you want to use certain types of surveillance devices, like visual trespass surveillance or interception devices. In these cases, only a constable or certain enforcement officers can make the application, and only if their agency has been approved by an Order in Council made under section 50.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM2136703.


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48: Surveillance device warrant need not be obtained for use of surveillance device in some situations of emergency or urgency, or

"No warrant needed in emergencies for surveillance devices to prevent serious crimes."


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50: Approval of law enforcement agencies other than Police to carry out visual trespass surveillance and use interception devices, or

"Who can spy on people besides the Police, and how they get permission to do it"

Part 3Enforcement officers' powers and orders
Surveillance device warrants and declaratory orders: Application for surveillance device warrant

49Application for surveillance device warrant

  1. An application for a surveillance device warrant may be made only by an enforcement officer, and must contain, in reasonable detail, the following particulars:

  2. the name of the applicant:
    1. the provision authorising the making of an application for a search warrant in respect of the suspected offence:
      1. the grounds on which the application is made:
        1. the suspected offence in relation to which the surveillance device warrant is sought:
          1. the type of surveillance device to be used:
            1. the name, address, or other description of the person, place, vehicle, or other thing that is the object of the proposed surveillance:
              1. a description of the evidential material believed to be able to be obtained by use of the surveillance device:
                1. the period for which the warrant is sought.
                  1. If the enforcement officer cannot provide all the information required under subsection (1)(f) and (g), the application must instead state the circumstances in which the surveillance is proposed to be undertaken in enough detail to identify the parameters of, and objectives to be achieved by, the proposed use of the surveillance device.

                  2. The applicant must disclose in the application—

                  3. the details of any other applications for a search warrant or a surveillance device warrant that the applicant knows to have been made within the previous 3 months in respect of the person, place, vehicle, or other thing proposed as the object of the surveillance; and
                    1. the result of that application or those applications.
                      1. The applicant must, before making an application for a surveillance device warrant, make reasonable inquiries within the agency in which the applicant is employed or engaged for the purpose of complying with subsection (3).

                      2. Despite subsection (1), an application for a surveillance device warrant seeking authority to use visual trespass surveillance or an interception device may only be made by—

                      3. a constable; or
                        1. an enforcement officer employed or engaged by a law enforcement agency that has been approved by an Order in Council made under section 50.