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Corrections Act 2004

Corrections system - Coercive powers - Searching of prisoners and other persons

90: Definition of strip search

You could also call this:

"What a strip search is: when you might have to remove clothes to be checked all over"

Illustration for Corrections Act 2004

When you are being searched, a strip search means you might have to remove or move your clothes. The person searching you can ask you to do this so they can see all of you. They can also ask you to open your mouth, show them the palms of your hands or the soles of your feet.

The person searching you can ask you to lift your hair, raise your arms to show your armpits, or bend your knees. They can also ask you to lift or raise any part of your body. This is so they can see if you are hiding anything.

The person searching you is allowed to look at certain parts of your body, like your mouth, nose, ears, and other private areas. However, they are not allowed to put any objects into any part of your body.

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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=DLM296027.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Police and safetyCrime and justice > Criminal law
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"A rub-down search is when someone checks your body by touching you outside and inside your clothes."

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Part 2Corrections system
Coercive powers: Searching of prisoners and other persons

90Definition of strip search

  1. For the purposes of this Act, a strip search means a search where the person conducting the search may require the person being searched to remove, raise, lower, or open all or any of that latter person's clothing.

  2. For the purpose of facilitating a strip search, the person conducting the search may require the person being searched to do all or any of the following:

  3. open his or her mouth:
    1. display the palms of his or her hands:
      1. display the soles of his or her feet:
        1. lift or rub his or her hair:
          1. raise his or her arms to expose his or her armpits:
            1. with his or her legs spread apart, bend his or her knees until his or her buttocks are adjacent to his or her heels:
              1. lift or raise any part of his or her body (including, for example, rolls of fat, genitalia, and breasts).

                1. Authority to conduct a strip search—

                2. includes the authority to conduct a visual examination (whether or not facilitated by any instrument or device designed to illuminate or magnify) of the mouth, nose, ears, and anal and genital areas; but
                  1. does not authorise the insertion of any instrument, device, or thing into any orifice of those kinds.

                    1. Repealed
                    Compare
                    • 1954 No 51 s 21E
                    Notes
                    • Section 90(2)(f): replaced, on , by section 22(1) of the Corrections Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 5).
                    • Section 90(2)(g): inserted, on , by section 8(1) of the Corrections Amendment Act 2009 (2009 No 3).
                    • Section 90(3): replaced, on , by section 22(2) of the Corrections Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 5).
                    • Section 90(4): repealed, on , by section 22(2) of the Corrections Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 5).