According to new data released Monday, London’s under-fire police force strip-searched more than 600 children over a two-year period. Most of these children were black boys.
Rachel de Souza, England’s commissioner for children, said she was “deeply shocked” by the figures after obtaining them from the Metropolitan police. De Souza’s request came after Britain’s biggest police force was forced to apologise in March over the case of “Child Q”. That incident sparked an investigation for gross misconduct into four officers. ()
A 15-year-old black schoolgirl was strip-searched despite them being aware she was menstruating
A 15-year-old black schoolgirl was strip-searched by female police officers in 2020 despite them being aware she was menstruating. She was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis. She was searched without an “appropriate adult” present. Notably, no adult was in attendance in 23 percent of the cases unearthed by de Souza.
De Souza said she was “extremely concerned” at the ethnic imbalance, and said Child Q may be part of a bigger “systemic problem around child protection” in the Met.
Reportedly, she found that a total of 650 minors aged 10-17 were strip-searched by Met officers between 2018 and 2020. More than 95 percent were boys, and 58 percent of the 650 were described by the officer as being black.
There is a crisis of public confidence in the police
The figures had gone up sharply year after year. She showed that a significant number of children “are being subjected to this intrusive and traumatising practice each year”.
The London force has been rocked in recent years by a succession of incidents involving officers. Including the incident that happened last year, when a diplomatic protection squad member was jailed for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
Notably, Cressida Dick resigned as Met commissioner in February due to a crisis of public confidence in the police. In response to de Souza’s findings, the Met said it had already instituted changes “to ensure children subject to intrusive searches are dealt with appropriately and respectfully”.
Some children may themselves be a “vulnerable victim of exploitation” by gangsters and drug criminals, it conceded.
Mayor criticizes the Police
London mayor Sadiq Khan redoubled his criticism of the Met after slamming the force over the Child Q case and other incidents. “It was deeply concerning that so many body searches were happening without an adult present,” a spokesman for Khan said.
“And there remain serious wider issues with regard to disproportionality and the use of stop and search on young black boys,” the spokesman said.
