Beryl LiveISO ... Is there one out there ?

[Francesco Peeters]

On Thu, April 12, 2007 14:02, Michael Cohen wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 11, 2007 at 11:02:13PM +1000, daniel sobey wrote:
>> On a side note you have a legal right to your privacy
>> which includes your bags. From what i understand a
>> shop can politely request that you allow your bag to
>> be searched but they cannot carry out the search
>> themselves. Even if you did have stolen property in
>> your bag they cannot do anything while you are in the
>> store because you have not yet committed a crime. what
>> they can do is call the police and request that the
>> police search your bag for stolen property.
>
> That is not strictly correct, as this url explains:
>
> http://www.afp.gov.au/act/victims/citizens_powers_of_arrest
>
> Depending on how firmly the store keeper believes that you are in
> possession of
> stolen property an arrest can be made. Im not sure if the store keeper can
> then
> search the bag themselves or detain you until the police arrive.
>

In all countries where I have been that have law based on UK law
(astoundingly that actually *does* including Britain itself) the privacy
extends even after a citizen's arrest, and searching of one's private
properties can only be done by law enforcement or those assigned special
investigative powers by the government. (i.e. customs officers, special
security guards, etc.)

Making the - no-so-off-the-wall - assumption that Australian law, being
based on UK law itself as well, does have similar provisions, that would
most likely mean the store keeper has to keep his hands off the bag until
a police officer arrives.

If I were a storekeeper, I would not even *want* to search the bag myself,
to prevent any claims of framing/falsification...  ;-)

Just my EUR 0,02 (but IANAL, so I may be off here, esp. as I have not yet
had the pleasure of going 'down under' [which I definitely *do* plan on
doing one day, given the chance!])

-- 
Francesco Peeters
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