Duties, Powers and Responsibilities of Authorised Officers
This domain tests whether you can distinguish a duty from a power from a discretion, and whether you can use each within the legal mandate. The exam looks for practical judgment: what an officer must do on receiving a complaint, what may be done during an inspection, and what must never be done without express authority.
Core rules
- Duties are mandatory: receive and register reports, act impartially, record actions contemporaneously, preserve evidence, report serious offences, and assist the prosecution and courts.
- Powers are express: entry to licensed premises, inspection, sampling, document copying, seizure, and sometimes arrest. If a power is not stated, it does not exist. There is no general 'necessary and proper' police power.
- Discretion must be reasoned: choose inspection, warning, seizure or referral based on risk, evidence, repeat conduct and legal thresholds. Record the reason.
- Personal accountability: authority cannot be lent to unappointed persons. You may direct a colleague, but the legal power remains with the authorised officer.
- Use of force is exceptional and must be necessary, proportionate and legally grounded; it must be reported.
- Safety, courtesy and identification: announce authority, show identification, explain the purpose, and respect privacy.
Worked example
An officer finds expired food in a shop. The law allows seizure of unsafe goods and a fine. The officer seizes the stock, gives a signed inventory, stores it in the evidence room, and reports the matter to the prosecutor because sale of unsafe food may be a criminal offence. Reasoning: inspection and seizure are express powers; a warning alone would fail the duty if the legal threshold for seizure is met; referral preserves the prosecution's charging role.
Traps
- Using a warning as a favour when the legal threshold requires escalation.
- Acting on a complaint without verifying identity, jurisdiction or legal basis.
- Taking statements under pressure or in breach of procedural safeguards.
- Failing to record exculpatory evidence that weakens the officer's own case.