A total of 160 young people aged 13 to 17 were ‘strip-searched’ by police officers in the West Midlands last year, Birmingham paper “Birmingham live” revealed today. Most – 146 – were ordered to remove their clothes for a full search after being taken into custody under suspicion of committing an offence.
Another 14 were ordered to strip off clothing after first being approached in the street by police using stop-and-search powers. Five of the children were aged just 13.
The force’s use of strip-search powers is now being looked at by the Children’s Commissioner, whose office told Birmingham Live she would be requesting all strip-search data involving children from the force as part of a national overview. West Midlands Police has so far been unable to provide us with a breakdown that shows the ethnicity of all the children who were strip-searched, whether an ‘appropriate adult’ was present, or whether arrests followed.
However, we do know that, in 59.5 per cent of all strip-searches carried out by the force on adults and children combined, the police did not take any further action.
The use of strip-searches on children – described as an intrusive and traumatising process – has come under scrutiny after the Metropolitan Police used its powers in controversial circumstances to intimately search a black teenage girl – known as Child Q – at her school.
The Met was also criticised amid claims it was racially profiling young black men in particular, who are disproportionately subject to searches, and that nearly a quarter of strip searches involving children were not carried out in the presence of ‘an appropriate adult’. We requested comparable data from West Midlands Police but not all of it has yet been made available to us.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza has expressed alarm at the use of strip-searches of children by the London force. She also said she was deeply shocked at the ethnic disproportionality shown in the figures.
She said she would be “engaging with the Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council, HMICFRS, the College of Policing, and other relevant agencies over my wider concerns regarding the current national procedures around strip searching children. My team will also be requesting this data from all police forces, so that we can ensure sufficient changes are made to protect the rights of children.”
West Midlands Police said a strip-search was a vital tool in the fight against drugs and violence, enabling officers to order suspects to remove under clothing to check for items that could harm them or others, and concealed contraband.
Strip-searches “can only take place if an officer reasonably believes the person being searched has concealed an article which it is necessary to remove,” and must take place in a private area in a police station, the force said. At least two other people must be present with the officer carrying out the search, of the same gender as the suspect, and suspects should not have to remove all their clothing at one time
