A police officer may, in a public place, or in any place to which the public is admitted, even against payment of an entrance fee, search any person or vehicle, if he has a reasonable suspicion that the search will discover the possession of things, which are prohibited, stolen or acquired as the result of any offence whatsoever, or which may be used or may have been used in the commission of an offence or which may serve in the investigation of an offence.
Except in urgent cases and when a person is apprehended in flagrante delicto, the search of a person has to be carried out by a police officer of the same sex and cannot be conducted by a police officer not in uniform unless that officer can clearly identify himself by a police identity card.
An intimate search of an arrested person can take place when the arresting officer or the custody officer requests a Magistrate to authorise such search. This is done when the officer has reasonable suspicion that the person arrested may have concealed on his person any drug the unlawful possession of which would constitute a criminal offence or any other item which a custody officer is authorised by law to seize from the possession of an arrested person. The Magistrate will appoint an expert to conduct the examination and the expert will then compile a report which is communicated to the arresting/custody officer.