Suspended Victoria police Chief Frank Elsner is asking a judge to declare sections of B.C.'s Police Act unconstitutional in response to an investigation into allegations that he exchanged "inappropriate" Twitter messages with a subordinate officer's wife.

The act allows external investigators with the Office of the B.C. Police Complaint Commissioner to search police premises, equipment and records, without having to obtain a warrant when investigating alleged misconduct at municipal departments.

Elsner says those provisions violate Charter protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

He also claims investigators went beyond the Police Act provisions by searching his personal email, Twitter account and devices without proper authorization.

Elsner is seeking to have his devices returned and any records obtained from the searches destroyed.

He expressed his request as an amendment to a B.C. Supreme Court action he launched in March asking to have the court quash the B.C. police complaints commissioner investigation into the allegations.

Deputy Police Complaints Commissioner Rollie Woods says his office's lawyers are preparing a response to Elsner's request and will likely be joined by the attorney general.

Woods says the sections of the Act being challenged are necessary.

"When a complaint comes in, for example, when we're trying to assess whether it's admissible or not, we have to get documents from the police department for context to determine if the information provided in the complaint is accurate," Woods said.

"If we couldn't get access to those records, I think it would make our job impossible."

In a separate application, Elsner is also requesting a publication ban on information that could come to light as a result of the case, including the contents of the Twitter messages, the identity of the woman and her husband and details of his employment contract.

Elsner's original petition claims B.C.'s police complaint commissioner lacked the legal authority to order the RCMP-led probe.

His lawyer didn't respond to a request for comment.

With files from Keith Vass