Loading The number of NSW Police searches has increased by almost 50 per cent in the four financial years 2014-18. The Herald revealed earlier this year NSW Police admitted in an internal document its officers were breaching their powers to conduct strip searches. Newcastle teen Lucy Moore, 19, will be speaking at the launch of the report after taking to social media in March to complain that she was subjected to a strip-search and thrown out of a Sydney music festival despite nothing illegal being found. Her complaint led to a review of the incident being conducted by police.

Under the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002 (LEPRA), a police officer can carry out a strip-search in the field if it is necessary for the purposes of the search and if the "seriousness and urgency" of the circumstances make it necessary. But the paper says "mere possession" of an illicit drug doesn't legally justify a strip-search, despite figures showing suspicion of a person possessing drugs accounted for 91 per cent of the reasons why police conducted searches in the 2018-2019 financial year. Police patrol outside Field Day at The Domain on New Year's Day. Credit:Sydney Morning Herald The paper found that only 27 per cent of the searches recorded by the police as undertaken for the reason of drug possession resulted in criminal charges for possession of drugs over a three-year period from financial year 2016-17. "It is important to note in relation to this statistic that without another reason, suspected possession of a drug alone would not satisfy the serious and urgent criteria necessary for a strip search to be lawful," the report says.

They say field strip-searches should be limited to suspicion of drug supply or possession of a dangerous weapon, and in circumstances where the search is "necessary to prevent an immediate risk to personal safety" or prevent the loss of evidence. In a detailed reply to questions from the Herald, a NSW Police spokesperson said during the music festivals police found many persons had secreted trafficable quantities of illegal drugs in their underwear or internally, including an 18-year-old woman who internally concealed 394 MDMA pills. "When police initially form a reasonable suspicion, they cannot know the quantity of drugs in a person’s possession and whether they are for personal use or for the purpose of supply," the spokesperson said. The report's authors say LEPRA should be amended to provide clear examples of when a strip-search is necessary, and that the definition should be honed to include pulling out of a person's outer clothing to inspect his or her underwear, or requiring someone to lift their shirt or pull aside a bra. The authors argue the "deeply humiliating" practice of requiring a person to squat and cough or bend over while undergoing a strip-search are not authorised and the law should be amended.

Loading The police spokesperson said that in 2018 alone, police detected a firearm and 93 knives or "sharp cutting instruments", as well as illicit drugs on 1553 occasions during field strip-searches. "People who are trying to hide such items frequently secrete them in private places, and the only way to

locate them is by a strip-search, which may involve asking the person to squat," the spokesperson said. They also recommend searches should not be allowed to be carried out with the consent of the person being searched, as that person may be unaware of their legal rights; and that police should be made to ask those being searched what gender officer they prefer to protect the rights of transgender and intersex people. NSW Police are able to strip-search children as young as 10, with data revealing almost 300 minors were the target of field strip-searches over a two-year period between the 2016-18 financial years.