Recent research that was made public indicated that police officers who were tasked with protecting black children in England and Wales were six times more likely to conduct strip searches on them.
According to the Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza, more than half of the strip searches on children between mid-2018 and mid-2022 took place without an appropriate adult present.
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The inquiry was started when two female cops conducted a strip search on a black 15-year-old student at a London school in 2020 while no other adult was present because the student was suspected of possessing marijuana.
The girl, known as “Child Q,” was menstruating and there were no drugs in her system.
An earlier study indicated racism was a potential cause for the humiliating search.
De Souza remarked, “The bravery of a girl to speak up about a traumatic thing that happened to her” led to the report that found “widespread noncompliance” of safeguards and evidence of a “deeply concerning practice.”
The findings come in the wake of an incriminating report released last week that found the public had stopped believing in the London Metropolitan Police, that the agency was rife with institutional racism, misogyny, and homophobia, and that it wasn’t doing nearly enough to get rid of bad officers. That study was commissioned after an officer raped and murdered a young lady.
According to the current research, searches of kids as young as eight were taking place in frequently unsuitable locations including amusement parks, cars, and sometimes even in front of onlookers. Sometimes there was at least one officer there who wasn’t the same gender as the youngster being searched.
According to population statistics, black children were searched in more than a third of the 2,847 cases, making them more than six times more likely to be searched. The likelihood of searching for white children was nearly half as high.
De Souza referred to the difference as “utterly unacceptable.”
The results, according to the Runnymede Trust, a think tank for racial equality, were somewhat more difficult to take than those from the study on the Metropolitan Police, which has previously come under fire. The trust demanded that police leave schools and lose their right to conduct children’s strip searches.
They noted, “Officers are often unable to justify the necessity of strip-searching, nor can they report on the safeguarding impact on the child concerned.” While adding, “Quite the contrary. It also confirms that our policing crisis is not just confined to London, it is national.”
De Souza stated that although strip searches may be required, there must be strong precautions to protect kids.
She made 17 suggestions, one of which was for the Home Office to reassess search laws and policies and modify the police and criminal evidence codes specifically.
