Police face ‘big job’ safeguarding children in strip searches, says commissioner
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza made her comments as she published the third in a series of reports on the issue.
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Your support makes all the difference.Police forces face a “big job” adopting a safeguarding-first approach towards child strip searches, the Children’s Commissioner has said.
Dame Rachel de Souza has warned policymakers that some searches may be unnecessary, after her research found around half of the 457 searches in England and Wales between July 2022 and June 2023 resulted in no further action.
Her report, published on Monday, is the third in a series produced after a 15-year-old black girl – known as Child Q – was strip searched at her school in Hackney, east London, in 2020.
Taking questions about the document, Dame Rachel told BBC Breakfast that when she had spoken to children, “they know the police have to do tough things, they want to be protected by the police, but the police must be trustworthy and must keep the rules”.
Dame Rachel added: “There are groups of young people who feel that isn’t the case and they’re unfairly, you know, picked on, and unfortunately, data like this shows that it does look like this is the case, or we certainly can’t say it’s not.
“So I think the police have a big job to do here in terms of listening to young people, especially those that are, you know, are from the black community and other communities that are disproportionately in these figures.”
The Children’s Commissioner also said: “My argument is, they should only be done if it’s a life-threatening situation. Let me just remind viewers, this is pre-arrest, this is a child that’s just a suspicion, they’re taken – there’s meant to be an appropriate adult there: in 45% of cases there are not.
“And their clothes are removed, and their most intimate parts are looked at and moved if necessary.
“It’s really very intrusive and, you know, it’s hard to see, given that only about half of the strip searches have further action taken – and a far smaller percent actually end up with charges – that they’re being done because it’s really, really crucial for life and death that they’re being done.”
Police searched Child Q at her school after suspicions she was in possession of cannabis, but they did not find drugs.
Two female officers removed the girl’s clothes, while two male officers and school staff remained outside the room where the search took place.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) concluded that three Metropolitan Police officers should face a gross misconduct hearing for potential breaches of professional standards.
The watchdog said allegations included “there was no consultation with a supervisor to obtain authorisation before carrying out the search, there was no appropriate adult present during the search (and) Child Q was discriminated against by officers because of her race and sex”.
The Children’s Commissioner found the number of strip searches in 2022 was 42% lower than in 2020.
The Met had completed 66 strip searches between July 2022 and June 2023.
“Publishing the data has an impact,” Dame Rachel told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, and added that the Met had reported a drop in cases.
Referring to the Child Q case, the commissioner said: “I was told this was a one-off, so I used my data powers to find out whether that indeed was a one-off, and it was not.”
Dame Rachel said she would continue to publish data “every year, and will not stop until both the numbers of inappropriate strip searches come down”.
Police have an important role in ensuring the safety of young and vulnerable people and that each interaction with them is fair and handled with sensitivity
In total, 44 police forces in England and Wales – including the British Transport Police – reported 3,368 strip searches of children using stop-and-search powers between 2018 and June 2023.
The Children’s Commissioner found 37 out of 44 forces had reported “at least some policy or procedure changes” since March 2022.
Policies which forces reported included “a presumption that no child will be strip searched”, “explicit bans on conducting strip searches in the home or school”, and that searches exposing intimate parts should be authorised by an inspector in Cheshire and Avon and Somerset, and a superintendent in Hampshire.
Chief Constable Craig Guildford, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for ethics and integrity, said: “We always welcome the Children’s Commissioner’s reports and the accountability that comes with it.
“Police have an important role in ensuring the safety of young and vulnerable people and that each interaction with them is fair and handled with sensitivity.”
Mr Guildford added: “We will carefully consider the findings from the Children’s Commissioner as part of this work.”