Inquest examining drug deaths at NSW music festivals hears about the effects of ‘dehumanising’ body searches

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The trauma experienced in police strip searches is akin to that suffered during sexual assaults, the New South Wales music festivals inquest has been told.

A harm reduction campaigner and a criminologist told a NSW coroner on Friday the experience of being ordered to undress in front of police and accused of concealing drugs could cause long-lasting mental effects.

The harm occurred regardless of whether the people were concealing drugs or not, researcher Peta Malins said.

“They talk about how huge the effect can be emotionally, the anxiety, the fear, increased heart rate, sweaty palms, shaking and nervousness,” the RMIT criminology lecturer told the inquest.

Festival deaths inquest: police pushed to release protocols after 'unconscionable' strip searches Read more

“They talk about how hard it was to answer the questions of the police.”

The issue of strip searches at music festivals has risen a number of times during the inquest, which is examining the deaths of six young people from MDMA toxicity at musical festivals between December 2018 and January 2019.

On Thursday, counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer told the court that the inquest would seek access to NSW police strip search protocols, saying the circumstances under which they were permitted “should be clearly understood by the families of the young people who are involved in the inquest and by the general public at large”.

But on Friday the Redfern Legal Centre released the results of a Freedom of Information request which suggested the protocols may not exist.

In December the legal centre requested a copy of standard operating procedures related to strip searches in NSW, but only received copies of extracts from the publicly available police code of practice and police force handbook.

In NSW police can carry out a strip-search in the field if the officer suspects on reasonable grounds that the search is necessary, and that the seriousness and urgency of the circumstances make it necessary.

However critics of the practice say there is no detail on how police make that decision, and officers have breached their powers in the past.

Samantha Lee, the head of Redfern Legal Centre’s police accountability section said if the protocols existed they should be “immediately put on the public record”.

“The public has a right to know if there are clear and well-informed protocols to inform the actions of police undertaking strip searches,” she said.

“As well as robust laws to protect the public, rigorous and clear guidance should be available to all police undertaking this invasive and humiliating process to ensure that a strip search is only used in the most exceptional of circumstances.”

Malins, who published an academic paper based on interviews with 22 people who had been searched by police, said being stopped and searched was already traumatic.

But those strip-searched found it “particularly dehumanising” to be ordered to undress completely and display openings to cavities, she said.

“There was an overwhelming sense of powerlessness … a feeling as though they had been intruded upon,” she said.

“In one particular interview, the woman said the trauma triggered past experiences of sexual and physical abuse that she’d experienced.”

Will Tregoning, the founder of harm reduction organisation Unharm, said he had spoken to people who had likened their strip-searching to sexual assault.

“It’s traumatic,” he said. “My concern is it additionally trains people to not trust police.”

Tregoning said most police officers were pragmatic and held a very strong sense of social service.

But he said the drug searches could create a climate of fear and further barriers between young people and the police trying to keep them safe.

The coroner’s court was told on Thursday that police had been directed to reveal their strip-search protocols and an internal report on officers’ use and understanding of those guidelines.

Alex Ross-King, Nathan Tran, Diana Nguyen, Joseph Pham, Joshua Tam and Callum Brosnan died after consuming MDMA at NSW music festivals between December 2017 and January 2019.