- The police are allowed to search your baggage if they deem you suspicious of a criminal offense. Always ask what crime you are being searched for. Ask why you are suspected of this offense.
- Extended personal searches (strip-search, for example) are not permitted in public. Emptying pockets or palpation, however, is allowed.
- In case of extended searches, insist the police search you in their car or at the police station.
- Only doctors or physicians are allowed to examine body openings.
- Insist that, as a woman, you be searched by women, or, as a man, by men.
- If you consider refusing a search, you should know that this may result in a criminal charge.
- The police are allowed to take a DNA sample from you (oral smear). In general, law enforcement and courts are entitled to order this. However, the prosecution or the court of justice are responsible for arranging the analysis and creating a DNA profile.
- If you get a summons from the police for DNA collection, it does not mean that you are obligated to do so.
- After a DNA extraction, or upon receiving a summons to a DNA extraction, please always report to one of the counseling centers in section Human rights & repression!
- Recognition measures can be ordered by the police, the prosecution, or the courts. This usually includes determination of the body characteristics of a person and taking prints of body parts. If you refuse such police orders, the prosecution decides.
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