POLICE in London have strip-searched 650 mostly Black children – most of whom were found to be innocent of the suspicions against them – over a two-year period, the UK’s children’s commissioner says.
Slamming the Metropolitan Police record on child protection, Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza said in a report released on Monday that she was not convinced that the force was ‘consistently considering children’s welfare and wellbeing,’ after police data showed that in almost a quarter of cases an appropriate adult was not present during the search, despite this being a requirement under statutory guidance.
De Souza further highlighted the ethnic disproportionality of the strip-searches after the data showed that of the children aged 10 to 17, who had been subjected to such searches between 2018 and 2020, almost three out of five (58 per cent) were Black. For 2018 alone, the figure was 75 per cent.
She also questioned how such an ‘intrusive and traumatising’ practice was necessary after figures indicated that in 53 per cent of the cases no further action had been taken. ‘This low level of successful searches arguably indicates that this intrusive practice may well not be justified or necessary in all cases.’
The revelations in the report led to a widespread belief that the Met has been involved in ‘state-sanctioned’ child abuse and the dehumanising of children, and just another example of institutional racism plaguing Britain’s largest police force.
The damning report further raised concerns about ‘a lack of appropriate oversight’ of police practice surrounding strip-searches after the data revealed that in one in five cases, there was no way of knowing where it even took place.
The facts are: ‘About 2,000 police officers have been accused of sexual misconduct in UK in past four years.
‘Out of the 269 strip searches of minors in 2021 for which the location of the search was recorded, 57 per cent took place at a police station and 21 per cent at a home address,’ according to the report, which goes on to say that 22 per cent of the degrading searches had been conducted at ‘another location’ but ‘due to the low quality of recording practice, it is not possible to determine where these searches took place.’
The data showed the number of searches increased steadily between 2018 and 2020, with 18 per cent of all searches carried out in 2018, 36 per cent in 2019, and 46 per cent in 2020. Almost all of the children strip-searched were boys (95 per cent), and a quarter were 15 or younger.
The Children’s Commissioner launched her investigation following widespread outrage over the case of Child Q, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was strip-searched by female Met officers in 2020 after she was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at her east London school.
The strip-search triggered days of protests in London after it emerged the schoolgirl had been searched without another adult present, and despite knowing that she was menstruating. Her parents were not contacted.
De Souza emphasised that she was ‘deeply shocked and concerned’ after requesting the data from the Met Police, using her powers under the Children and Families Act, saying: ‘I am also extremely concerned by the ethnic disproportionality shown in these figures, particularly given that ethnicity was determined to be such a key factor in the Child Q case.
‘I am not reassured that what happened to Child Q was an isolated issue, but instead believe it may be a particularly concerning example of a more systemic problem around child protection within the Metropolitan Police. I remain unconvinced that the Metropolitan Police is consistently considering children’s welfare and wellbeing.’
She now plans to seek the same data from all police forces.
‘This report is about state-sanctioned child abuse operating outside the law,’ said executive director of the London-based Inquest human rights charity Deborah Coles, as quoted in a report by The Guardian. ‘It also reveals racist and discriminatory policing and the dehumanising of black children.’
In fact the Met Police was declared to be institutionally racist by the McPherson inquiry into the racist killing of Stephen Lawrence on the 22nd April 1993.
THIS DID NOT STOP THE MET. One of its serving officers Wayne Couzens raped and murdered Sarah Everard, with her body found in woodland near Ashford, on March 4, 2021.
The Met is racist through and through. It must now be shut down and replaced by a workers’ police force and a workers’ state.
