What can police ask you?

The police can ask you for your name and address if they believe you have committed a crime. You must give them this information. It is an offence to provide a false name or address. You can be fined for not complying with the police officer.

The police generally have the power to arrest you if they have reasonable grounds for believing that you have committed, or are committing a crime.

What information can the police ask me?

• The police can ask you for your name and address if they have reason to believe you have committed an offence or can give information about a crime that’s been committed. You must give them this information if you are reasonably able to do so.
• If the police ask you for your name and address, they must tell you why they are asking for your information.
• You do not have to answer any other questions. It is often best to say nothing if you are unsure whether you should answer any questions.
• Remember – when you are talking to police nothing is “off the record” and everything you say may be used as evidence in court.

What information should I ask the police?

If the police ask for your name and address, you should ask for their details, such as:

• their name; and
• their police station.

You can ask the police officer to write these details down for you. If they refuse to provide this information the police officer can be fined.

What can the police ask me to do?

Move on

The police have the power to direct anyone to leave a public place if they have reasonable grounds to believe that you have recently engaged in or are about to engage in violent conduct in that place. For more information see our “Sleeping or Loitering in a Public Place” fact sheet.

Search and seize

A police officer has the power to stop, search and detain anyone reasonably suspected of having drugs, something stolen or something relevant to a serious offence on them. A police officer does not need a warrant to conduct this search. However, they must have a factual basis for their suspicion that you have the relevant thing.

If a police officer believes on reasonable grounds that you are in a public place or school with a knife on you, they may conduct an ordinary search of you, conduct a frisk search of you, and may take any knife they find off you.

Arrest

A police officer generally has the power to arrest you if they believe on reasonable grounds that you have, or are committing, an offence. If a police officer asks you to go to the police station you should ask if you are under arrest.

• If you are not under arrest or are not being taken into protective custody you do not have to go.
• If you are being arrested it is important to ask why. The police officer must tell you the offence you’re being arrested for.