Child strip-searched every 14 hours by police in England and Wales, report finds

Black children remain four times as likely to be strip-searched in new data uncovered following…

The Independent

Black children remain four times as likely to be strip-searched in new data uncovered following the case of schoolgirl Child Q

A child was strip-searched every 14 hours by police in England and Wales, new data has revealed, with the youngest aged just eight years old.

New figures uncovered by the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza show the controversial use of strip-searches on under-18s for the past five years.

She found 3,368 strip-searches of children were conducted by all 44 police forces in England and Wales between January 2018 and June 2023.

Her investigation comes after a Black schoolgirl known as Child Q, 15, was wrongly accused of having drugs and strip-searched while on her period, with no appropriate adult present, in Hackney, in December 2020.

Three Metropolitan Police officers face misconduct proceedings over the shocking case, which also prompted the police watchdog to issue calls for a review of police strip-search powers.

*The strip-search of Child Q sparked protests outside Stoke Newington police station (PA Archive)*

In a comprehensive report published on Monday, the commissioner found that an appropriate adult was not confirmed present in almost half of the searches between July 2022 and June 2023.

Almost nine in 10 were carried out on suspicion of drugs over the same period, with just 6 per cent carried out on suspicion of carrying weapons or blades.

Almost half of all searches resulted in ‘no further action’ – calling into question their necessity – and a quarter resulted in an arrest. Concerningly, 6 per cent of search outcomes were not recorded at all.

The proportion of searches conducted involving a child aged 15 or younger increased to 28 per cent between July 2023 and June 2023, compared to 23 per cent in the previous four years.

Racial disparity also continued, with Black children four times more likely to be strip-searched between 2022 and 2023 compared to national population figures. This is down from six times more likely between 2018 and 2022.

The report also found police forces were twice as likely to routinely record additional characteristics of vulnerability, such as whether a child is in care, has a medical condition or is a victim of sexual exploitation, for searches in custody compared to searches under stop and search…