London: Police strip-searched hundreds of minors

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Policeman in London (icon image)

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Over the past two years, more than 600 children and young people have been strip-searched by London police officers.

More than 95 percent of the affected minors were male and 58 percent of them were black.

This emerges from a report published on Monday by the English child protection officer Rachel de Souza.

She was "deeply shocked" by the numbers.

De Souza had requested the data from the London police after the case of a 15-year-old black woman made headlines.

She had been falsely suspected of drug possession and had to undress in front of police officers even though they knew she was on her period.

According to the report, a total of 650 minors between the ages of 10 and 17 were strip-searched between 2018 and 2020.

In 23 percent of the cases, an impartial adult was not present.

De Souza said he was "extremely concerned" about the disproportionate number of black people affected.

Apparently there are also "systemic problems with child protection" with the London police.

The number of minors searched in this "obtrusive and traumatizing" way has also risen sharply every year, criticized the child protection officer.

Again and again allegations against the police authority

London Police, in response to the report, said changes had already been introduced to ensure minors were strip searched with "appropriate and respectful treatment".

The London police had recently been shaken by a series of scandals surrounding racism, sexism and misogyny.

Police chief Cressida Dick resigned in February.

After the murder of a young woman by a police officer, an independent investigative body has denounced in a number of ways "shocking" behavior by police officers at a London department.

The police officers exchanged racist, sexist and homophobic messages via WhatsApp and Facebook in the examined period of 2016 and 2018, as the supervisory authority explained in a report.

The department concerned has been closed.

jok/AFP