Contacting family members etc.
13AZQ Contacting family members etc.
S. 13AZQ inserted by No. 32/2018 s. 9.
This section applies subject to section 13AZZB.
A person being detained under this Part is entitled to contact once any one or more of the following persons solely for the purposes of letting the person contacted know that the person being detained is safe and is being detained—
the person's parents or one of person's other family members;
if the person—
lives with another person and that other person is not a family member of the person being detained; or
lives with other people and those other people are not family members of the person being detained—
that other person or one of those other people;
if the person is employed—the person's employer;
if the person employs people in a business—one of the people the person employs in that business;
if the person engages in a business together with another person or other people—that other person or one of those other people;
if the police officer detaining the person agrees to the person contacting another person—that person.
The form of contact that the person being detained is entitled to have with another person under subsection (2) is by telephone or electronic communication.
To avoid doubt, the person being detained under this Part is entitled, under subsection (2), to disclose—
the fact that a police detention decision has been made in relation to the person; and
the fact that the person is being detained; and
the period for which the person is being detained.
In addition, a police officer detaining a person under this Part must allow the person, while being detained, to have further contact with one or more of the person's family members or any other person if it is reasonably practicable for that contact to happen.
To avoid doubt, the person being detained is entitled to disclose the following to a person with whom the person has contact under subsection (5)—
the fact that a police detention decision has been made in relation to the person;
the fact that the person is being detained;
the period for which the person is being detained.
The form of contact that the person being detained under this Part is entitled to have with another person under subsection (5) includes—
being visited by that other person; and
communicating with that other person by telephone or electronic communication.
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