New data shows NSW police strip-searched 96 children in the past year, some as young as 11. Redfern Legal Centre lawyer Samantha Lee unearthed these numbers, stating that they are “just alarming in total, over a two year period 271 children were strip-searched out of the 9,100 people strip-searched overall. Young people, aged between 18 and 25 made up 40% of those searches. Strip-searches don’t just happen in NSW, they happen across the country in all different jurisdictions, and police are not meeting the legal requirements.”
When asked of the possibility that these statistics could be decreasing, Samantha states, “not at all, too many people are still being strip-searched in NSW. We don’t just need policy change by the police, we need legislative change to ensure that there are in place real change that is going to mean real difference to people on the ground. We want no children to be strip-searched in NSW, and would like that to be seen across Australia. We don’t want young people to be strip-searched for the mere possibility that they might have a small amount of cannabis or MDMA on them, we want strip-searches to only be done in the most exceptional circumstances”
Samantha affirms that “what we really do need to see is for the public to show the police minister and their premier that they want this law changed, that young people are being harmed, that the process is invasive and humiliating, and that it’s happening across all parts of NSW, and disproportionately to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”
Listen to the full podcast here (Hack Triple J – ABC News, 2 November 2020)
RLC in the Media: Samantha Lee on Triple J's Hack program
Date published
Nearly 100 young people have been strip-searched in New South Wales, and First Nations people are overrepresented in the statistics.
Hack Triple J reports for ABC News
