Extra safeguards could be introduced to protect children and vulnerable people from being strip searched by the police
The Home Office launched a six-week consultation this week proposing a requirement for parents and guardians to be informed when their child is strip searched. Any strip search would need to be authorised by a senior officer of the rank of inspector or above. Existing safeguards would be clarified—for example, that an appropriate adult of the opposite sex can be present only if known to the detainee and the detainee agrees.
Last year, public concern was raised by the case of Child Q, a 15-year-old Hackney schoolgirl strip-searched by officers without another adult present after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis.
Mark Russell, chief executive of the Children’s Society, said the proposals were ‘a welcome and crucial step forward’.
