The independent inquiry by the Law Enforcement Conduction Commission (LECC) – which investigates the police – is assessing whether the police “engaged in serious misconduct” when strip searching a 16-year-old.
The teenager was strip searched without a parent or guardian present, and according to NSW law, a parent or guardian must be present if a child between 10 and 18 is strip searched.
This comes after a report released by Redfern Legal Centre in August revealed police strip searches in New South Wales have increased almost twentyfold over the last 12 years.
The teenager has delivered a statement to the commission where she said a drug dog sat down next to her while she was waiting in line to enter Splendour’s 2018 run in Byron Bay.
She said the police told her to put her hands up while they led her to a tent away from the entry gate.
“I felt completely humiliated, people were yelling out that police had someone… I was scared as I didn’t have drugs on me and I was alone,” she said in her statement.
A female officer asked her to remove all clothing, including a panty liner which she was asked to remove for inspection, and told to squat down. At this point the officer squatted down to look underneath her.
No drugs were found.
Strip searches in NSW will come under the microscope next week when a strip search roundtable will take place in Sydney next Thursday morning.
Read the full article here (The Industry Observer, 21 October 2019)
