Powers of forensic specialists
65B.—(1)  The Commissioner must, in writing, issue to each forensic specialist an authorisation —
(a)specifying such power as is specified in subsection (3) that the forensic specialist may exercise; and
(b)specifying the police officer or class of police officers, or the law enforcement officer or class of law enforcement officers, the forensic specialist is to assist by the exercise of those powers.
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(2)  However, to avoid doubt, the Commissioner cannot authorise under subsection (1) a forensic specialist to arrest any individual.
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(3)  The powers that a forensic specialist may be authorised under subsection (1) by the Commissioner to exercise may be all or any of the following, and no others:
(a)to secure a crime scene against unauthorised disturbance to the extent authorised by a warrant or directed by the police officer or law enforcement officer whom the forensic specialist is so authorised to assist, including (but not limited to) —
(i)preventing any unauthorised individual, animal or vehicle from disturbing or entering the crime scene;
(ii)restricting entry to the crime scene to people, animals, and vehicles, that are authorised;
(iii)removing any unauthorised individual, animal or vehicle from the crime scene;
(iv)if the crime scene is established in or around a vehicle, preventing the vehicle from being moved;
(v)preventing a thing relevant to the offence to which a crime scene relates from being concealed or disturbed; and
(vi)preventing an individual from removing evidence from or otherwise interfering with the crime scene or anything in it and, for that purpose, detain and search the individual;
(b)to search a crime scene, and any individual at or within the vicinity of the crime scene, to the extent authorised by a warrant or directed by the police officer or law enforcement officer whom the forensic specialist is so authorised to assist, including (but not limited to) any of the following to obtain evidence of the commission of an offence:
(i)opening anything at the crime scene, or in the possession of the individual, that is locked and to inspect anything in it;
(ii)removing or causing to be removed an obstruction from the crime scene;
(iii)digging up anything at the crime scene, removing roofing material, wall or ceiling linings or floors of a building, or panels of a vehicle that is a crime scene;
(iv)photographing or otherwise recording the crime scene and any thing or individual in it;
(v)taking into and using in the crime scene any equipment or facilities that are reasonably necessary in order to search or inspect in accordance with any warrant or the directions of the police officer or law enforcement officer the forensic specialist is so authorised to assist;
(vi)making reasonable use of any equipment, facilities or services in the crime scene to operate the equipment or facilities mentioned in sub‑paragraph (v), and taking electricity, gas, water or any other utility for such use in the crime scene;
(vii)exercising any power of a police officer under sections 34, 35, 39 and 40 of the Criminal Procedure Code 2010 at the crime scene in accordance with any warrant or the directions of the police officer or law enforcement officer the forensic specialist is so authorised to assist;
(c)to seize and detain all or part of a thing that might provide evidence of the commission of an offence to the extent authorised by a warrant or directed by the police officer or law enforcement officer whom the forensic specialist is so authorised to assist;
(d)to do a forensic examination, whether at a crime scene or otherwise, on a thing relevant to an offence or a sample of such a thing;
(e)to carry out any forensic procedure on any individual, whether at a crime scene or otherwise, in accordance with Part 3 or 4 of the Registration of Criminals Act 1949, for the purpose of searching for a thing, or evidence of a thing —
(i)that is relevant to an offence that is reasonably suspected to have been committed; and
(ii)the existence or absence of which on or in the body of the individual is relevant to the investigation of the offence;
(f)to take statements from individuals to the extent directed by the police officer or law enforcement officer the forensic specialist is so authorised to assist, and to require such an individual to make and sign a declaration of the truth of the statement made by the individual;
(g)to exercise such other powers and perform such other duty as may be conferred by any other written law on forensic specialists.
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(4)  The Commissioner’s written authorisation under subsection (1) for a forensic specialist may do all or any of the following:
(a)limit the powers in subsection (3) that the forensic specialist may exercise;
(b)limit when the forensic specialist may exercise the forensic specialist’s powers in subsection (3) or any of them;
(c)limit where in Singapore the forensic specialist may exercise the forensic specialist’s powers in subsection (3) or any of them;
(d)limit the circumstances in which the forensic specialist may exercise the forensic specialist’s powers in subsection (3) or any of them;
(e)limit the offences in respect of which the forensic specialist may exercise the forensic specialist’s powers in subsection (3) or any of them;
(f)limit the purposes for which the forensic specialist may exercise the forensic specialist’s powers in subsection (3) or any of them.
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(5)  A forensic specialist who is authorised under subsection (1) to exercise any power under subsection (3) to assist a police officer or law enforcement officer specified in that authorisation (specially or by class) is —
(a)to exercise that power only to assist the police officer or law enforcement officer, or officer in that class (as the case may be) where the officer is exercising in Singapore a power or discharging any duty, under this Act or any other written law, for purposes of law enforcement; and
(b)to obey all lawful directions (general or specific) of the Commissioner, and that police officer or law enforcement officer (as the case may be), when exercising that power.
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(6)  Without affecting section 25, where any law or written law protects —
(a)a police officer from liability for the police officer’s acts or omissions; or
(b)a law enforcement officer from liability for the law enforcement officer’s acts or omissions,
that law or written law is taken to operate as if those acts or omissions include the forensic specialist’s acts or omissions when acting in the course of his or her duty as a forensic specialist in accordance with the written authorisation of the Commissioner under subsection (1) and with subsection (5).
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(7)  Without affecting section 25, in any action brought against any forensic specialist for anything done in obedience to a warrant, or any forensic specialist acting in the course of his or her duty as such in assisting a law enforcement officer for anything done in obedience to a warrant —
(a)the forensic specialist is not responsible for any irregularity in the issuing of the warrant because of any want of jurisdiction in the court issuing that warrant; and
(b)upon the warrant being produced and proved at the trial of the action and upon it being proved that the act complained of was done in obedience to the warrant, verdict and judgment must be given for the forensic specialist, despite any such irregularity or want of jurisdiction, and the forensic specialist may recover his or her costs,
and this subsection is to apply whether or not it is an action that is brought jointly against the law enforcement officer and forensic specialist.
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(8)  To avoid doubt —
(a)a forensic specialist does not cease to be acting on the direction of a police officer or law enforcement officer by reason only that that officer is not present at all times when the forensic specialist exercises any power under subsection (3);
(b)a forensic specialist is not to be regarded as a member of the Police Force for the purposes of section 14 of the Government Proceedings Act 1956; and
(c)nothing in this section limits the powers of any authority to investigate accidents under any written law for the time being in force relating to air navigation or merchant shipping.
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(9)  A forensic specialist who, in the course of his or her duty as a forensic specialist, exercises any power in subsection (3) in accordance with the written authorisation of the Commissioner under subsection (1) and with subsection (5) is deemed to be a public servant for the purposes of the Penal Code 1871 when exercising such power.
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(10)  In this section —
“crime scene” means —
(a)any place or vehicle where an offence was committed or is reasonably suspected to have been committed; or
(b)any place or vehicle associated with, or relevant to, the commission or suspected commission of an offence;
“forensic examination”, in relation to any thing, means doing all or any of the following:
(a)examining or operating the thing;
(b)photographing, measuring or otherwise making a record of the thing;
(c)taking an impression or making a cast of the thing;
(d)taking samples of or from the thing;
(e)doing tests on the thing, or on any sample taken under paragraph (d), for forensic purposes,
and includes dismantling, damaging or destroying the thing if it is reasonably necessary to do so in order to do all or any of the above;
“forensic procedure”, in relation to an individual, includes doing all or any of the following in relation to the individual:
(a)taking a sample of a nail or from under a nail of an individual;
(b)taking an impression or cast of a wound from the external parts of the individual’s body other than the individual’s private parts;
(c)the taking of physical measurements (whether or not involving marking) for biomechanical analysis of an external part of the body other than the individual’s private parts;
(d)taking of prints of the individual’s hands, fingers, feet or toes;
(e)taking from the individual a sample of blood, a sample of head hair (including the roots thereof) or other body samples within the meaning of the Registration of Criminals Act 1949;
(f)taking a swab, or using other means, to detect a relevant thing on the external parts of the individual’s body other than the individual’s private parts;
(g)searching the individual (including the mouth);
(h)removing any article that the individual is wearing, and searching any article so removed;
(i)removing a relevant thing attached physically to those external parts of the individual’s body or taking a sample of that relevant thing;
(j)photographing any relevant thing in the position it is found on the external parts of the individual’s body, or in the individual’s mouth;
“photograph” includes a digital image and a moving visual record;
“seize and detain”, in relation to any thing at a crime scene, includes a power to remove the thing from the crime scene when it is found and a power to guard the thing in or on the crime scene;
“vehicle” includes a vessel and an aircraft;
“warrant” means a warrant of a court.
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