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Search and Surveillance Act 2012

General provisions in relation to search, surveillance, and inspection powers - Reporting

171: Annual reporting of search and surveillance powers by agencies other than Police

You could also call this:

"Agencies must report each year on how they use search and surveillance powers without a warrant."

Illustration for Search and Surveillance Act 2012

If you are the boss of a law enforcement agency, you must include some information in your annual report. This report is prepared for Parliament under section 43 of the Public Finance Act 1989. You need to report on how many times your agency used search and surveillance powers without a warrant.

You have to tell how many times you used these powers to enter or search a place without a warrant. You also have to say how many times you used surveillance powers without a warrant, and if you used any special devices to do this. If you used these devices, you need to say how many of each type you used, and for how long.

You must also report on how many people were charged with a crime because of evidence found using these search and surveillance powers. Additionally, you have to include information about surveillance device warrants and declaratory orders as set out in section 172.

There are some things you do not have to include in your report, such as searches of people who have been arrested or are in custody. You also do not have to report on searches that people have agreed to, or on searches in certain areas that are specified in the law.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM2136885.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Police and safetyRights and equality > Privacy
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170: Annual reporting of search and surveillance powers by Commissioner, or

"The Commissioner's yearly report on how police use search and surveillance powers, like hidden cameras and tracking devices, to investigate crimes."

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171A: Information to be included in report on warrants under subpart 6A of Part 2, or

"What info must be in a report about search warrants"

Part 4General provisions in relation to search, surveillance, and inspection powers
Reporting

171Annual reporting of search and surveillance powers by agencies other than Police

  1. The chief executive of a law enforcement agency (other than the Police) that employs or engages persons who may exercise an entry power, a search power, or a surveillance power conferred by this Act or by an enactment specified in column 2 of Schedule 2 must include in every annual report prepared by the chief executive for the purposes of section 43 of the Public Finance Act 1989, or any other applicable enactment requiring an annual report to Parliament,—

  2. the number of occasions on which entry or search powers were exercised without a warrant in the period covered by the report:
    1. the number of occasions on which warrantless surveillance powers were exercised in the period covered by the report that involved the use of a surveillance device:
      1. in respect of each kind of surveillance device used without a warrant in the period covered by the report, the numbers of that kind of device used—
        1. for a period of no more than 24 hours:
          1. for a period of more than 24 hours but no more than 48 hours:
          2. the number of persons charged in criminal proceedings where the collection of evidential material relevant to those proceedings was significantly assisted by the exercise of a warrantless search or surveillance power in the period covered by the report:
            1. the matters set out in section 172 in relation to surveillance device warrants and declaratory orders.

              1. This section does not require a chief executive to include in any annual report information about—

              2. a rub-down search of a person that is undertaken in conjunction with that person's arrest or detention under any enactment:
                1. any search of a person in lawful custody undertaken under section 11 or under the Corrections Act 2004:
                  1. the exercise of any power of entry that does not also confer a power of search:
                    1. a search undertaken by consent:
                      1. any prescribed search or surveillance, or search or surveillance of a prescribed kind, in any prescribed area or an area of a prescribed kind.

                        Notes
                        • Section 171(1): amended, on , by section 27(1) of the Budapest Convention and Related Matters Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 39).
                        • Section 171(1): amended, on , by section 104 of the Public Finance Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 50).