CHILDREN as young as 8-years-old are being strip-searched by the police, with black children six times more likely to be targeted than non-black.
A report by Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza found that thousands of children aged from 8-16 have been strip-searched in the backs of police vans, in their schools or even in fast-food shops over the past few years.
Her report showed that 2,847 children were strip-searched in England and Wales from 2018 to mid-2022.
More than half (52%) of the searches took place without an appropriate adult present – which is a legal requirement.
The data also show that more than half of strip-searches (51%) led to no further action.
De Souza launched her inquiry in the wake of the Child Q scandal, which came to light in March 2022.
Child Q was a 15-year-old girl who was strip-searched at her school in Hackney, North East London, by two female Metropolitan Police officers while on her period and without an appropriate adult present.
The case drew national outrage and prompted de Souza to request figures from Scotland Yard, to which 39 of 43 forces responded.
The figures reveal evidence of ‘deeply concerning practice’, she said.
Her office identified searches at 27 forces which raise concerns about children’s safeguarding, or indicate a breach of the statutory code of practice and asked for these to be referred to the police watchdog.
Of the nearly 3,000 searches, almost a quarter (24%) took place on children aged 10-15. The youngest was eight years old.
The vast majority were boys (95%), and black boys accounted for more than a third (37%) of strip-searches.
De Souza said it is ‘utterly unacceptable’ that black children are six times more likely to be strip-searched compared with the national child population.
‘We cannot have black children treated like this,’ she said.
She continued: ‘This data, combined with that which I received from the Metropolitan Police last year, is the clearest indication yet that what happened to Child Q was far from an isolated incident.’
