Police Administration Act 1978

A member may, without warrant, apprehend a person and take the person into custody if the member has reasonable grounds for believing:

the person is intoxicated; and

the person is in a public place or trespassing on private property; and

because of the person's intoxication, the person:

is unable to adequately care for himself or herself and it is not practicable at that time for the person to be cared for by someone else; or

may cause harm to himself or herself or someone else; or

may intimidate, alarm or cause substantial annoyance to people;

is likely to commit an offence.

For the purposes of carrying out his duties under subsection (1), a member may, without warrant, enter upon private property.

A member who takes a person into custody under subsection (1), or any other member, must establish the person's identity by taking and recording the person's name and other information relevant to the person's identification, including photographs, fingerprints and other biometric identifiers.

A member of the Police Force who takes a person into custody under subsection (1) may:

search or cause to be searched that person; and

remove or cause to be removed from that person for safe keeping, until the person is released from custody, any money or valuables that are found on or about that person and any item on or about that person that is likely to cause harm to that person or any other person or that could be used by that person or any other person to cause harm to himself or another.

For the purposes of subsection (3), the person of a woman shall not be searched except by a woman.

All money or valuables taken from a person under subsection (3) shall be recorded in a register kept for that purpose and shall be returned to that person on receipt of a signature or other mark made by that person in the register.

A member may use the force that is reasonably necessary to exercise a power under this section.