ABSTRACT
When a person has been arrested away from a police station under any arrest power, s 32 of PACE empowers the police to search the suspect and, if the arrest is for an offence, any premises the person was in at the time of the arrest or immediately before it, whether or not the premises are occupied or controlled by the suspect. The power of entry into premises must be confined to searching for evidence relating to the offence in question and can only be exercised if it is reasonably believed that such evidence will be found there. In R v Beckford (1991), it was stated that s 32 must not be used to initiate ‘fishing expeditions’. The police must have genuine belief that the premises contain evidence of the offence for which the suspect has been arrested; this will be a matter of fact for the jury to decide. If a person is arrested in premises which consist of two or more separate dwellings, such as a block of flats, the police may only search the premises in which the suspect was arrested or was in immediately beforehand, as well as any common parts shared with others, such as stairways and balconies.
