Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) An investigating officer may, upon lawfully taking a person into custody in respect of a service offence, search the person, the clothing the person is wearing and any property under his or her immediate control if the investigating officer believes on reasonable grounds that it is necessary to do so:
(a) for the purpose of ascertaining whether there is concealed on the person, in his or her clothing or in that property a weapon or other thing capable of being used to:
(i) inflict death or bodily injury; or
(ii) assist the person to escape from custody; or
(b) for the purpose of preventing the concealment, loss or destruction of evidence of, or relating to, the service offence.
(2) Subsection (1) does not authorize the investigating officer to remove, or to require the person to remove, any clothing that the person is wearing.
(3) The investigating officer may seize:
(a) any weapon or other thing of a kind referred to in paragraph (1)(a); or
(b) any thing that the investigating officer has reasonable grounds to believe is a thing:
(i) with respect to which a service offence has been committed;
(ii) that will afford evidence of the commission of a service offence; or
(iii) that was used, or is intended to be used, for the purpose of committing a service offence;
being a weapon or thing found in the course of the search.
(4) Nothing in this section shall be taken to affect the operation of section 95A or 178A.