Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000

The responsible officer for a missing person scene, or a police officer acting under the direction of the responsible officer, may do any of the following in relation to the scene—

enter the scene;

if reasonably necessary, enter another place to gain access to the scene;

perform any necessary investigation, including, for example, a search and inspection of the scene and anything in it for the missing person or to obtain information about the person’s disappearance;

open anything at the scene that is locked;

take electricity for use at the scene;

remove or cause to be removed an obstruction from the scene;

photograph the scene and anything in it;

seize all or part of a thing that may provide information about the missing person’s disappearance.

However, if it is necessary to do anything at the missing person scene that may cause structural damage to a building, the thing must not be done unless a Supreme Court judge issues a missing person warrant before the thing is done and the warrant authorises the doing of the thing.

An authorised assistant for the missing person scene may also do a thing mentioned in subsection (1).

However, the authorised assistant may do either of the following things only if asked to do so by the responsible officer—

enter the missing person scene;

if reasonably necessary, enter another place to gain access to the missing person scene.