Search laws come in for drastic review

The nation's law-reform agency, the Law Commission, plans to look at the powers of all law enforcement agencies in a wide review of powers of search and seizure.

It will seek a balance between law enforcement and individual rights in a bid to update laws such as those for searching "intangibles" such as electronic data on a computer server.

"The investigation of general criminal offences has not kept pace with changes in technology," said commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer.

"We want a consistent set of rules and procedures that govern search and seizure, interception and surveillance - and all that will be finished by September."

Deputy president Warren Young said the two most important parts of the project were the need to update the search for intangible items such as electronic data, and regulating electronic surveillance. In areas of searching electronic data such as computer servers owned by a third-party, better law was needed.

Law enforcement agencies also needed laws that enabled them to seize things for forensic analysis or to preserve a crime scene for examination.

Police and other officials required a framework for powers of surveillance - an area that was not regulated at all.

Also, there was protection needed for the rights of the people being searched: "There is no requirement to be told that your house has been searched if you were away at the time - we don't think that is right," said Sir Geoffrey.

The commission said it would pull all the relevant legislation into one omnibus law providing a single set of rules for all search warrants.

"The commission is intending to recommend that the law related to search and seizure ... be codified in one single piece of legislation," said Sir Geoffrey. "The powers of search are found in a dozen different statutes enacted at different times and dealing with a wide range of offences."

The present law was exceedingly complex, and inconsistent: "Often there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason for differences."

The commission would also set out the circumstances in which a search could be conducted without a warrant, the threshold for granting search warrants and the circumstances in which they could be extended to non-imprisonable offences.

- NZPA