Police strip-searched 51 children in a year despite Labor’s promised review

NSW Police have continued to strip-search children at similar rates after a promised review by the Minns government failed to lead to any changes to the practice, despite senior Labor MPs previously arguing for major reforms of the controversial tactic.

The latest data, obtained by the Redfern Legal Centre through freedom of information laws, reveals 51 children aged between 10 and 17 were strip-searched in the last financial year. The practice can involve forcing minors to remove their clothing in public places, and, in some instances, teenagers instructed to squat and cough when police believe they are concealing drugs.

Police Minister Yasmin Catley’s review of strip search practices has not yielded any change.Credit: Louise Kennerley

The figures remain on par with the previous two years, when 57 and 50 children were strip-searched, including three primary-school-aged girls, and six 13-year-old girls.

Last October, Police Minister Yasmin Catley promised to personally review the practice, which has previously been decried by a long list of Labor MPs, in response to the release of the 2022-23 figures.

The Minns government’s subsequent failure to act on strip-searching of children has become a major source of frustration for justice advocates and some MPs.

Hansard – the official record of NSW parliament – is littered with Labor MPs who decried the strip searching of minors while in opposition. Among them were Transport Minister Jo Haylen, who previously argued that police should require a court order before being able to strip-search a child, and Racing Minister David Harris, who labelled the strip-search of a 16-year-old at a music festival “outrageous”.

“When I heard that story I had tears because I thought, ‘that could be my daughter,’” Harris said during a debate in 2019.

Haylen and Harris both declined to comment.

Redfern Legal Centre senior solicitor Samantha Lee said she met several Labor MPs in opposition, and had presented them with potential legislative changes to tighten definitions around strip-searches.

“Before they got into government we had a lot of traction around the strip-searching of children. There was a lot of enthusiasm from key figures in Labor, and we were really hopeful something would change. And now there is dead silence,” she said.

In NSW, police are only permitted to carry out a strip-search if the situation is serious or urgent, but several groups – including the police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission – have repeatedly said ambiguity in that definition means they are sometimes conducted unlawfully.

Haylen spelt out those issues in her 2019 speech when she warned of “the emotional damage that is wrought on young and vulnerable people” who are strip-searched. At the time, she said strip-searching children should be “conducted in accordance with child protection principles and only with a court order”.

Lee made the same recommendation during a meeting with Catley earlier this year as part of the long-running, but informal, review promised last October.

But in the 12 months since the government promised Catley would “meet with key stakeholders in the coming weeks”, she has only held three meetings: with Redfern Legal Centre, UNSW criminology academic Vicki Sentas and the NSW Police.

“I’ve met experts and advocates to discuss this matter and I am considering their views,” Catley said.

“In doing so, it’s important to balance community expectations with community safety.”

Catley said police had made “several improvements” to their strip search processes, including additional training and policy guidance.

“Police take their powers extremely seriously and must only carry out a strip-search if they reasonably suspect that is it necessary for the purpose of the search, and that the seriousness and urgency of the circumstances make a strip-search necessary,” she said.

Other key groups have yet to be consulted. In a statement, a spokesperson for the LECC said it had not been consulted by the minister on the topic to date. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre also confirmed they had not been consulted.

The review – which the government has repeatedly stressed is informal and contains no terms of reference – is yet to yield any policy change.

“We haven’t heard anything,” Lee said.

NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson was scathing of the government over its failure to make progress on the issue, labelling them “cowards” and raising concerns about the influence of conservative media calls for tough policing.

“It is that question of, you know, who’s really running the state, and who are you trying to appeal to by not taking the action they promised they would and doing the things they knew needed to be done when they were in opposition?” she said.

“Why now, that they have the power and the levers to pull, are they too cowardly to use them?”

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