The news comes just days after it was revealed 96 children were strip searched in the state over the past year.
Greens MLC David Shoebridge revealed their proposed amendment to the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act, which aims to ban the strip searches of anyone under 16, and calls for minors aged 16 and 17 to be searched “only in exceptional circumstances.”
As it stands, NSW Police are empowered to conduct strip searches on people as young as ten. Official NSW Police figures recently obtained by the Redfern Legal Centre show that almost 100 minors were strip searched over recent months, including an 11-year-old Indigenous boy.
The bill calls for further restrictions on when strip searches can be used, the abolition of any quotas related to their use, and the admission that, as strip searches are an invasive procedure, people cannot technically offer their consent.
“Even if you’re ok with monstering people, the basic fact is: drug dogs just don’t work,” Shoebridge, a longtime critic of strip searching minors, told the Legislative Council today.
Read the full article here. (Pedestrian TV, 11 November 2020)
