A Freedom Of Information request from the Redfern Legal Centre revealed that while an officer conducting a strip search shouldn’t have their body camera on, a support officer should be present and have their camera on.
In a somewhat disquieting piece of news, it turns out that the police can absolutely film your strip search – and, in fact, are ordered to do so.
This was a finding from a Freedom Of Information request from the Redfern Legal Centre, reported by the Guardian.
More specifically, the officer doing the strip searching shouldn’t have their body camera on – but a support officer should be present and have their camera on.
The document makes clear that people should have their privacy respected when police film their strip search, but that “A person’s privacy is not a sufficient reason to cease filming a strip search conducted in the lawful execution of an officer’s duty.”
“Standard operating procedures also ensure resulting footage cannot be seen by people without a lawful right to do so and that there is no unnecessary recording of a person’s private parts,” a spokesperson for NSW police said.
RLC’s FOI request followed reports in The Sydney Morning Herald that there were no clear guidelines for what circumstances warranted a strip search and that officers were taking it on themselves to decide without any other authorisation.
Read the full article here (The Goat, 2 August 2019)
