Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2003

Power to take an arrested person to a police station

22 (1) Where a designation applies this paragraph to a person—

(a) the persons who, in the case of a person arrested by a constable, are authorised for the purposes of paragraph (1) of Article 32 of the 1989 Order (procedure on arrest of person elsewhere than at a police station) to take the person arrested to a police station include the designated person;

(b) that Article has effect in relation to the exercise by the designated person of the power conferred by virtue of paragraph (a) as if the references to a constable in paragraphs (3), (4)(a) and (13) (but not the references in paragraphs (5) to (12)) included references to the designated person;

(c) a person who is taking another person to a police station in exercise of the power conferred by virtue of paragraph (a)—

(i) must be treated for all purposes as having the other person in his lawful custody;

(ii) is under a duty to prevent the other person’s escape;

(iii) is entitled to use reasonable force to keep the other person in his charge.

(2) Without prejudice to any designation applying paragraph 12 to a person, where a person has another in his lawful custody by virtue of sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph—

(a) he has the same powers under paragraphs (7) and (8) of Article 55 of the 1989 Order (non-intimate searches) as a constable has in the case of a person in police detention—

(i) to carry out a search of the other person;

(ii) to seize or retain, or cause to be seized or retained, anything found on such a search;

(b) paragraphs (9) and (12) of that Article (restrictions on power to seize clothes and personal effects and searches to be carried out by a member of the same sex) apply to the exercise by the designated person of any power exercisable by virtue of this sub-paragraph as they apply to the exercise of the power in question by a constable.