Fuller says he’s ‘disappointed’ with the way powers were used but young people should have ‘a little bit of fear’ of police

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

The New South Wales police commissioner, Mick Fuller, says he was “disappointed” by the conduct of officers who strip-searched a 16-year-old girl at a music festival in 2018 but has again stood by the use of the controversial police power.

In an interview with the ABC on Tuesday Fuller conceded revelations in the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (Lecc) hearings last month which revealed an allegedly illegal search of a 16-year-old girl at the 2018 Splendour in the Grass festival “doesn’t make me happy”.

After a dramatic rise in the number of strip-searches conducted by police over the past decade, Fuller said the rate of strip-searches was declining across the state as pressure mounts on the use of the practice.

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“There’s certainly been a couple of examples recently from the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission where I was disappointed with the way the powers were used and I’m conducting a personal review into strip-searches to make sure the safeguards are being applied,” he said.

“But again they’re not being done in huge numbers compared to [other] police powers but at the same time I accept that there is concern around strip-searches and I’m taking that seriously.”

Fuller has taken the unusual step of publicly advocating for the use of strip-search powers in the wake of high-profile criticism, saying in a separate interview on Monday that young people should have “a little bit of fear” of police and that questioning “the legitimacy of policing” had “a negative impact on public safety”.

He also claimed reducing strip-searches could lead to an increase in knife crime despite fewer than 1% of all searches in the state being conducted for that reason.

Asked about that on Tuesday, Fuller said he had not “been able to test” that data – contained in a landmark report from the Redfern Legal Centre and the University of NSW – but again insisted he was concerned about knife crime.

In October the Lecc held public hearings into a potentially illegal search which left a 16-year-old girl fearful and in tears. The police watchdog is also considering the use of the search powers more broadly, including whether police are allowed to force people to squat.

This month, the NSW deputy coroner Harriet Grahame released the findingsof an inquest into festival deaths which recommended police dramatically limit strip searches, saying the wholesale use of the practice was of “grave concern”.

But despite saying police were reviewing the use of the power, Fuller defended the high-profile policing tactics at music festivals which critics, including the coroner, say can increase drug-related harm.

“Drugs are still illegal,” Fuller said on Tuesday. I know there seems to be a romantic feeling about ecstasy, that it’s a party drug, but it’s killing people, we know drugs are dangerous, we know there’s no safe amount of MDMA.

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“We know drugs are consumed in large quantities at music festivals. Now, if that happened at your local pub or club or restaurant … you wouldn’t go there but for some reason we just accept that music festivals are lawless and that’s OK.

“I don’t get why we accept the behaviour at music festival as different to every other licensed premises in NSW, I don’t get it.”

Also on Tuesday, Fuller announced police would conduct an investigation into whether dating apps are being used by sex offenders to target victims.

Despite saying he did not have data on whether it was an issue, Fuller said he believed it was a problem.

“The concern for me is one, there’s two particular crimes types at the moment that are increasing and one is fraud, particularly technology-enabled fraud, and the second one is adult sexual assault,” he said.

“If you think about most crimes, stealing vehicles, breaking into houses, we pick up quite easily recidivist offenders [but] when it comes to adult sexual assault we’re not seeing any stats around recidivist offenders.

“That for me means I’m concerned we’re not getting the information we need to protect the next victim.”