Shadow police minister says police interpretation of when a strip-search is justified is ‘very loose’

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

The New South Wales opposition has called for a review of strip-search laws after revelations about the number of children being targeted by the controversial policing tactic.

On Thursday, Labor’s shadow police minister, Lynda Voltz, said figures revealed by Guardian Australia this week showing police in New South Wales have strip-searched 122 girls, including two 12-year-olds, in the past three years demonstrated a need for an overhaul of the laws governing the practice.

“When you have 122 girls under 18 being strip-searched, I would have thought that’s a bit exceptional,” Voltz said.

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“Where’s the justification for strip-searching children of that age? I understand there may be exceptional circumstances where there’s a grave risk and you need to do it, but I would expect that number to be much lower than 122.”

Voltz said Labor would push for a review of the legislation guiding strip-searches, saying it was not specific enough and that as a result the police interpretation of when a search is justified was “very loose”.

“A review of the act is worthwhile to clarify what the procedures are and what people’s rights are and to ensure no one is over-stepping that,” she said.

Under the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act, or Lepra, police in NSW are allowed to conduct a strip-search outside a police station if the “seriousness and urgency of the circumstances” make it necessary.

Critics have long argued that “broadly defined” threshold fails to give police clear guidance on when a strip-search should be carried out.

In August, the Redfern Legal Centre released a report with the University of New South Wales which warned imprecise legal thresholds meant unlawful use of the practice is “potentially widespread”.

That fear was borne out last month when the state’s police watchdog, the Law Enforcement and Conduct Commission, held public hearings into the potentially illegal strip-search of a 16-year-old girl at a music festival in 2018.

It heard many officers were not aware of their responsibilities under the act, and one officer admitted all 19 searches he conducted at that music festival may have been illegal.

“It’s clear from the LECC inquiry that the police involved didn’t understand or know what their responsibilities under the act were and how it should be administered,” Voltz said.

“As a result of that you’ve got these police protocols which are very loose, there are these issues around how the act is being interpreted, things like making people squat during a search, and we need more clarity so that those powers are clearly spelled out.”

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Guardian Australia revealed on Wednesday that two 12-year-old girls have been strip-searched by police in NSW in the last three years. They were among 122 girls under the age of 18 who have been forced to undergo the controversial practice by police since 2016.

Asked if should could envision a situation where that would be necessary, Voltz said: “I would have thought not”.

“But, you know, I don’t know the circumstances,” she said. “If it’s an allegation a child has a weapon at a school, is that an appropriate action? I don’t know. What we do want to know is whether the parents were there and whether they were informed, and that’s what we would like the minister David Elliott to tell us.”

Following the release of the data, Elliott said he “would want” his children to be strip-searched if police suspected they were in possession of illegal drugs and believed other parents would feel the same. The opposition leader, Jodi McKay, called the comments “outrageous”.

“David Elliott is so out of touch with mums and dads on so many issues he might as well be on another planet,” she said. “The community is rightly worried that that this is happening on all too frequent basis.”