A public study that found the London Metropolitan Police strip-searched hundreds of children during a two-year period, with and without parental or social worker approval, prompted a nationwide inquiry.
Children as young as 10 were among the 650 searches conducted by the police during 2018-2020, 42% of whom were young black boys, the study released Monday determined.
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Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza, who published the report, said she was not convinced the police had been thinking of the welfare of the children because a quarter of the searches had no other adult in the room. One-fifth of the searches were conducted in “another location,” according to the study, which meant it was not possible to confirm where the searches were done, according to de Souza.
“A police power that is as intrusive and traumatic for children as a strip search must be treated with the utmost care and responsibility,” de Souza said in a write-up accompanying the report.
De Souza said she would use the information in the study to conduct a wider investigation into all police forces in England and will work with the London police to ensure children are treated fairly.
The investigation began after an unnamed 15-year-old black girl was stripped and searched by female police officers, who suspected the girl was carrying cannabis in 2020. The girl was stripped on school grounds without a third-party adult present who wasn’t a police officer. Her mother was also not notified ahead of the search, according to the Washington Post.
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The backlash over the girl’s mistreatment, including protests in London, led to reforms within the police department, including training on racial bias, such as not treating black children as adults, raising the level of approval necessary for officers to initiate strip-search procedures, and reviewing its policy for searching minors. The report acknowledged the changes but also recommended more training for the officers.
The police department said its learning to “balance the policing needed for this type of search with the considerable impact it can have on young people.”
