Search and Surveillance Act 2012

General provisions in relation to search, surveillance, and inspection powers - Carrying out search powers - Search of persons

126: Guidelines and rules about use of strip searching

You could also call this:

"Rules for when police can do a strip search on you"

When you are searched by someone from a law enforcement agency, there are rules they must follow. The person in charge of the agency must give their employees guidelines on when they can do a strip search. They must make these guidelines available to the public on their website.

If the person searching you does not follow these guidelines, the search is still not automatically against the law. You have the right to be searched by someone of the same sex as you. The search must be done in a way that you are not seen by someone of a different sex.

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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=DLM2136825.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Police and safetyRights and equality > Privacy

125: Special rules about searching persons, or

"What happens when someone searches you, and what they are allowed to do"

127: Search warrants to enter and search vehicles, or

"Police can search a vehicle if they have a warrant and think it's at a certain place."

Part 4General provisions in relation to search, surveillance, and inspection powers
Carrying out search powers: Search of persons

126Guidelines and rules about use of strip searching

The chief executive of a law enforcement agency that employs persons who may exercise a power, under an enactment, to search a person must issue guidelines to those employees concerning the circumstances (if any) under which a strip search may be conducted by any of those employees.
The chief executive of a law enforcement agency who issues guidelines under subsection (1) must ensure that a copy of those guidelines is publicly available on the agency's Internet site.
A search of the person is not unlawful by reason only of failure by the person conducting the search to comply with a guideline issued under subsection (1).
A strip search may be carried out only by a person of the same sex as the person to be searched, and no strip search may be carried out in view of any person who is not of the same sex as the person to be searched.