London police subject hundreds of minors to ‘strip search’ | Abroad

In almost a quarter of the cases, there was no ‘appropriate adult’ present, De Souza writes in her report. According to the children’s commissioner, an appropriate adult is, for example, a parent, social worker or volunteer.

De Souza requested the data from London police after they had to issue an apology over the Child Q incident in March. In addition, a 15-year-old black-skinned girl was accused by female officers of cannabis possession in 2020 and had to undergo a ‘strip search’, despite the officers knowing that the girl was menstruating. Such an investigation is intimate and sensitive, because the suspect usually has to remove one or more items of clothing. There was also no ‘appropriate adult’ present at Child Q.

The data that De Souza requested shows that in two years a total of 650 children between the ages of 10 and 17 were subjected to such an investigation by the London police. In 2020 it happened almost daily. Boys were involved in 95 percent of the cases. 58 percent of the children studied had black skin. In 53 percent of cases, no further action was taken after the strip search. “That calls into question how justified these kinds of intimate and traumatic investigations are,” De Souza writes in her report.

De Souza says he is “deeply concerned” about the overrepresentation of black children in the data and that the Child Q incident may be part of “a systematic child protection problem” within London police. She indicates that she will request the same kind of data from the other police departments in the country.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan also said through a spokesman that he is “deeply concerned” and that “serious problems remain regarding the disproportionality and use of body searches on young black boys”.