Over the four years ending in June 2018, the use of strip searches in NSW has risen by 47%, while last year 11% of people indicated by a drug detection dog have been ordered to remove their clothes.
The appearance of officers equipped with “privacy” screens and detection dogs at Central Station in recent months has been met with significant concern, along with now all too common reports of young people being ordered to disrobe at festivals.
The data shows that in cases where this invasive technique is utilised following a drug dog indication, two-thirds of those searched won’t be found carrying any illicit substances. And the vast majority of those found in possession of illegal drugs are only holding small amounts of cannabis.
“When the state uses that kind of violence, it needs to be well justified and subject to really strict protections for people,” said RMIT criminology and justice studies lecturer Dr Peta Malins.
If a civilian were to engage in a similar act against another, the crime they’d be committing would be a sexual act, and they would be liable to up to 18 months in prison.
Dr Malins stressed that strip searches can be experienced as a sexual violation, explain that the women she spoke to definitely experienced it that way.
NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge said last week that his office’s initial review of police standard operating procedures and training “Suggests that police are not advised as to how traumatic strip searches can be, especially on young women.”
The Redfern Legal Centre’s Safe and Sound campaign aims to have the legislation’s “vague and legalistic” wording altered to avoid misunderstanding.
Read the full article here (The Big Smoke, 4 June 2019)
