Four out of every 10 arrests Toronto police officers made between 2014 to 2016 involved strip searches — an “inherently degrading” police practice that a landmark Supreme Court decision ruled should never become routine.

The staggering number of strip searches performed in Toronto — a rate 40 times that of five other Ontario police forces of comparable size — is described in a comprehensive report released Thursday by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD).

The systemic review — which grew out of the “unabated” number of individual strip-search complaints to the police watchdog — concludes that police officers across Ontario continue to conduct unnecessary or even unlawful strip searches.

This, despite the nearly 20-year-old guidelines on when and how strip searches can be conducted. The parameters were established in the Supreme Court ruling in R v. Golden, a case that involved a Toronto police strip search that judges found went too far.

As a result of these “serious” issues of police compliance, courts in Ontario all-too-regularly toss cases or evidence due to unlawful or unreasonable searches, and too many people are humiliated by the intrusive searches, the OIPRD report finds.

“Over the years, there has been a continuous stream of reported cases involving unconstitutional strip searches. Put simply, the issue has not abated despite the passage of 18 years since the Golden decision,” writes OIPRD director Gerry McNeilly, in the report, called “Breaking the Golden Rule.”

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Under the Supreme Court definition, a strip search is the removal or rearrangement of some or all of someone’s clothing to allow for an officer to visually inspect genitals, buttocks, breasts or undergarments. Because they are inherently humiliating, the top court ruled they “cannot be carried out simply as a matter of routine policy.”

“She felt that it was sexual in nature — she felt violated,” said Audra Root, whose daughter Megan Anoquot filed a lawsuit against the Toronto police services board and four officers in 2013 after what she called a “humiliating” search that came after Anoquot was charged with shoplifting.

The case is still ongoing according to Root, though it has recently stalled after her daughter’s sudden death from an overdose last year, at 28.

Root says her daughter was “distraught” after the search. Root is relieved that the OIPRD report has shone a light on how common strip searches are.

“It’s about time that this matter is addressed,” Root told the Star in an interview Thursday.

After requesting data from Ontario’s 53 police services, the report concludes Toronto police is an “outlier,” conducting “far too many strip searches” compared to others of their size.

Toronto police conducted 17,654 strip searches in 2016 — roughly 37.5 per cent of all 47,050 arrests made that year. In 2014 and 2015, Toronto police conducted strip searches in more than 40 per cent of all arrests.

That rate is 40 times higher than the less-than one percent rate of strip searches conducted in police services during the same time period — 2014 to 2016 inclusive — in Hamilton, Durham Region, Ottawa, and Windsor as well as the Ontario Provincial Police.

An analysis of the underlying documentation “makes it clear that the disparity between Toronto Police Service rates and those of other large police services cannot be explained simply by differences in methodology or definition,” reads the report.

“It’s not simply explained through differences in statistical collection,” said Mark Sandler, lawyer for the review, at a press conference Thursday. “In our view, it did represent a difference in practice between the Toronto police service and other police services.”

Meaghan Gray, a spokesperson for the Toronto police, said in an email that Toronto police had been “addressing the challenges and sensitivities associated to strip searches for the last few years.” That has included a review of procedures and training to ensure these searches are not conducted arbitrarily.

She noted Toronto police also recently launched a full body scan pilot, an initiative aimed at reducing strip searches.

“Preliminary results indicate our goals have been met. We have decreased the level of intrusiveness for those being searched. We have addressed issues of wellness for our members who do these searches. And not one complaint has been received as a result of a full body scan.”

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Gray added that the issue of strip searches is more complex than simply looking at the numbers, and that when done appropriately, “they can be a necessary safety requirement resulting in the seizure of weapons and drugs which pose a significant risk to the person and those around them.”

Andy Pringle, chair of the Toronto police board, said in an email that the board and the service are reviewing OIPRD report.

“The board views this as an important issue and we will engage the chief, as we do on all significant issues. As appropriate, and after the board obtains further information, it may comment further,” she said.

Toronto police were also involved in 40 of the 89 criminal court decisions since the Golden ruling, where a judge found a police strip search violated of the defendant’s charter rights. In 74 of the cases — 83 per cent — the defendant’s rights were violated “based on the absence of, or inadequacy of, grounds justifying a strip search,” the report finds.

“This represents an alarming number of cases. It is made worse by the fact that in 18 cases, trial judges specifically commented on how the police treated strip searching as a matter of routine,” the report states.

Among those cases was a 2016 incident where a judge called out an entire North Toronto police detachment, 32 division, when tossing a man’s impaired driving charges after she found he was forced to remove his pants for no reason.

“Sadly, the evidence before me reveals that the unconstitutional strip search of (the defendant) was not an isolated incident. Indeed, the evidence highlights troubling systemic issues relating to strip searches at 32 Division,” Ontario Court Justice Heather McArthur wrote in her ruling.

McNeilly’s report makes 50 recommendations, first among them that every Ontario police service in Ontario “ensure that they are made aware of judicial findings of charter violations in strip search cases, and proactively take measures to address the issues raised when appropriate.”

“Such measures may involve anything from counselling, guidance, added supervision or training to prevent future violations to disciplinary proceedings in more egregious cases,” McNeilly writes.

Another central finding of the report came after his office requested strip search data from Ontario’s 53 police services. Many don’t keep data, let alone reliable and detailed information, including about total arrests, the number of strip searches conducted, and what was found as a result.

“The majority of services indicated that they did not keep strip-search statistics at all. Nor did they have a process to collect such statistics since most of the information sought was only to be found, if at all, in officers’ notes. As a result, information could not be extracted in a timely or accurate manner,” the report states.

Sixty-two per cent of police services could provide some statistics about what, if any, strip searches were done during the requested time period — 2014 to 2016 inclusive — “although 17 per cent of those police services provided such information based on memory alone,” the report states. The remaining 38 per cent of police services did not provide any such data.

Additionally, because Ontario police services have generally failed to keep race-related statistics, oversight agencies such as the OIPRD cannot “conduct evidence-based (rather than speculative) evaluations of the role that race plays in whether and how strip searches are conducted,” McNeilly writes.

“This type of evaluation is long overdue,” the report states.

The report recommends that all police services in Ontario “ensure that they keep accurate statistics of the number of persons they arrest or detain, the number of persons strip searched … and the justifications provided for such strip searches.”

“The statistics should also identify, among other things, the race of the person subjected to such a strip search,” the report states, adding the statistics should be made available to the public in an annual report.

Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis

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