The New South Wales police watchdog has cast significant doubt on the use of strip-search powers by officers in the state, arguing common practices including forcing people to squat or move their genitals are not legal.
A new report by the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (the LECC) found there were “considerable discrepancies” in the way strip-searches have been conducted in police custody and that it has “serious concerns” that changes to police policy had “raised broader legal issues which remain unresolved”.
Released on Thursday, the first report from the LECC’s landmark investigation into the use of strip-search powers in NSW revealed 113 different versions of standard operating procedures used by police when conducting searches in custody, many of which contained “Incorrect and inconsistent references” to police powers and legislation.
After the LECC began its investigation, the NSW police released new uniform manuals to assist police conducting strip-searches in custody and in the field. While the LECC said those documents “contain many improvements to the clarity and consistency of procedures” they also raised new issues.
The report states the LECC was “concerned” that a number of “key police positions” in the new manual were “wrong at law”, including the common practice of instructing people to squat or move their genitals during a strip-search.
Sam Lee, police accountability solicitor at the Redfern Legal Centre, said the report showed that there are “potentially hundreds of people who have been subjected to an unlawful strip search while being held in police custody”.
“Being placed into police custody is traumatising in itself, but being placed into custody and ordered to strip naked takes the trauma to a whole other level – especially if there was no legal basis for such a search,” she said.
“Updating training manuals and police operating procedures is just not enough. We need law reform to ensure that all people are protected from the trauma of unnecessary and invasive strip searches.”
While Thursday’s report focused on strip-searches in custody, the LECC is expected to publish the bulk of its investigations in April. Last week the Guardian revealed that further public hearings had been cancelled after the now-former head of the LECC, Michael Adams QC, was removed from the position in December.
Read the full article here (The Guardian Australia, 13 February 2020).
