By Michael McGowan, Max Maddison and Laura Banks
The controversial practice of strip-searching children in NSW will be scrutinised amid revelations police have used the powers against girls as young as 12, with Police Minister Yasmin Catley to examine whether the state’s current laws are fit for purpose.
After The Sydney Morning Herald revealed this week that more than 100 children – including primary school-aged girls – were strip-searched by NSW Police in the past 12 months, Labor announced the review in parliament on Wednesday afternoon.
Police Minister Yasmin Catley will meet with stakeholders to examine whether laws allowing police to strip-search minors are “fit for purpose”. Credit: James Brickwood
During a debate in parliament, government minister Tara Moriarty admitted the figures were “cause for concern”, saying Catley “shared those concerns”.
“The minister for police and counter-terrorism isn’t turning a blind eye to these concerns raised by community members, and is planning to meet with key stakeholders in the coming weeks to probe whether the policy settings in place are fit for purpose,” he said.
Catley’s intervention follows Premier Chris Minns on Wednesday morning defending the powers, saying the laws are uniform across Australia and insisting that police were improving their practices.
The use of strip-searches on children – and the laws governing their use – have long been a concern of justice advocates who say the powers are ill-defined and overly broad.
During the debate in the upper house on Wednesday, Labor backbencher Cameron Murphy added his weight to calls for reform of the laws, saying the current system was “broken”.
“I’ve spent my whole life virtually arguing against drug sniffing dogs. Nothing has changed in terms of this,” he said.
“This system, in my view, is broken. I know it’s a view that my party doesn’t share at the moment that they’re humiliating searches.”
The decision to examine the laws came as Jeremy Buckingham, the influential Legalise Cannabis NSW MP, said he wanted the government to ban police strip-searching minors suspected of possessing illegal drugs, and will raise the issue at an upcoming meeting with Minns.
Buckingham – a key crossbench MP in the state’s upper house, where the government is in minority – said on the back of Labor’s recent decision to introduce fines for low-level drug possession, he would introduce a private members’ bill banning police conducting strip-searches on children for drugs.
“Strip-searching anyone for suspected personal drug use is barbaric and counterproductive practice in the failed war on drugs that especially does serious long-term harm to kids, with no benefit to society,” Buckingham said.
In 2019, a report by the University of NSW found that 91 per cent of all strip-searches were conducted on the suspicion that a person was in possession of a prohibited drug. The same report, based on data obtained by the NSW Police, found that only 30 per cent of all strip-searches conducted outside of police stations in 2017 and 2018 resulted in charges. Of those, almost 82 per cent were for drug possession offences.
The state’s police watchdog, the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, also has found many officers did not understand the laws governing the practice of strip-searches.
Catley said her examination of the laws would seek to ensure the balance between community expectations and community safety was calibrated correctly.
“While the approach in NSW is in line with other Australian jurisdictions, I’ve requested advice on the factors that lead up to these searches being conducted, what the outcome of these searches were, and I will meet with key stakeholders in the coming weeks,” she said.
Former National Mental Health Commission Professor Ian Hickie implored the government to move beyond simple policing and examine harm reduction as part of their review, especially when it came to their interaction with children.
“We need to promote positive engagement between young people and police, and the government must consider the adverse mental health impacts of their current procedures and not simply if strip-search[ing] works or not, what is the trauma attached to that,” he said.
Redfern Legal Centre senior solicitor Samantha Lee welcomed the government taking the issue seriously, but she urged it to implement an immediate pause on strip-searching children during the review.
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