Undressing Abuse: How NSW Police are abusing strip-search powers

Written By: Lily Dorranian

The Redfern Legal Centre released a report in 2024, under their ‘police accountability dashboard’ that reveals accumulative statistics on the strip-searches conducted in NSW from 2017-2023. 

THE STATISTICS

Well, the release of these statistics are the first of its kind in Australia. Released by the Redfern Legal Centre, these statistics highlight many problems with the strip-search laws in New South Wales; problems that disproportionately put the safety, rights and livelihood of women, children and Indigenous Australians at risk. 

In the report, many horrifying facts are revealed that indicate how NSW police are abusing their powers and are becoming a threat to women’s and children’s safety. The report reveals that 60,725 people were strip searched, 1546 of them being children. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people accounted for 10% of all recorded strip searches in the field and 22% of all recorded strip searches in custody. Additionally, the report reveals that strip searches on girls under the age of 17 had increased by 30% from 2021 to 2022. The youngest person that was strip-searched was 12 years old.

THE LAW

In New South Wales, police obtain most of their powers from the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002, otherwise known as LEPRA. The ability to conduct and demand a strip search is protected under sections 31 - 34, as well as part 15 of the act. 

The law says that outside of a police station or detention centre, a strip search must only be conducted when a police officer suspects on reasonable grounds a strip search is necessary for the purposes of the search and that the seriousness and urgency of the circumstances make the strip search necessary (LEPRA, s.31(b)). The legislation does not define ‘reasonable grounds’, ‘necessary’ or ‘seriousness and urgency in the circumstances. If you refuse to submit to a strip search, the police can arrest you and conduct a full body search at the station, where a different section of the legislation applies, and police are granted the power to force you to remove every article of clothing, sit, squat and cough. 

“Strip searches constitute an invasive, humiliating, and harmful process and should only be used in exceptional circumstances when no other alternative exists.” - Sam Lee (Senior Solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre).

Essentially the law dictates that strip-searches are a last resort. They are NOT to be conducted if other, less invasive options, such as a general search/person search has not been conducted. However police data shows that routinely, strip searches are not being used in this manner. 

The circumstances that enable officers to conduct a strip search are based on ‘reasonable suspicion’. This is problematic. The phrase ‘reasonable suspicion’ has been a focal point in the discourse surrounding necessary law reform in Australia, with many legal theorists and reform activists asserting that the vagueness creates an imbalance of power between law enforcement and members of society.

Senior Solicitor at the Redfern Legal Centre, Sam Lee, said in an interview with ABC that a circumstance in which a strip search could be justified is if the police formed "reasonable suspicion" the person was involved in "high-end drug supply" or had a weapon. This further highlights how NSW police are failing to act within a legal threshold and are exercising constant abuses of power. 

The report, Rethinking Strip Searches by NSW Police by Dr Michael Grewcock and Dr Vicki Sentas highlights that the suspicion that a person possesses prohibited drugs accounts for 91 percent of all recorded reasons why police conduct a strip search from 2018-2019. But suspicion of mere possession of a prohibited drug alone does not legally justify a strip search.  There are more and more cases of clients’ detailing experiences of being strip searched at festivals, train stations, in the street, in the back of police wagons and in custody. This only highlights the rate and extent of poor, abusive and potentially unlawful police practices that violate an individual’s right to privacy. The strip-search experiences of those people brought to public attention through media reporting only urge us further to question the illegality, abusive/violating nature and harmful effects of strip-searches. Even though women are not the majority of strip-search victims, they are more likely to be traumatised from such a violating act considering the increasing statistics concerning violence against women in Australia:

• Australian women are nearly three times more likely than men to experience violence from an intimate partner (ABS, 2017). 

• 1 in 3 Australian women (30.5%) has experienced physical violence since the age of 15 (ABS, 2017).

• 1 in 5 Australian women (18.4%) has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15 (ABS, 2017).

• 1 in 3 Australian women (34.2%) has experienced physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by a man since the age of 15 (ABS, 2017).

• Almost one in 10 women (9.4%) have experienced violence by a stranger since the age of 15 (ABS, 2017).

There has been decades of research, numerous studies, theories and cases published that establish that strip-searches are extremely traumatising and violating, especially towards young women, children or individuals who have experienced previous sexual and/or violent trauma. 

Additionally, strip searches are the only way children as young as 10 can be legally forced to remove their clothes. 

It is clear that strip-searches are not being conducted in accordance with NSW law. If we look even broader, they are not being conducted according to child protection principles that are enshrined in international law, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, or in accordance with international human rights standards and social policy goals. 

Of course this is not to suggest that every single strip-search that is conducted is unlawful, but it invites us to engage in a broader conversation about necessary law reform in Australia, and how the safety of women and children are being threatened.

We know the law is not being followed or applied in its intended way. We know that strip-searches are not being conducted in accordance with child protection principles. We know that the amount of strip-searches conducted are increasing. We know that strip searches have increased against young women and girls, with some cases of female attendees at music festivals being forced to remove feminine hygiene products in front of male or female police officers under the “suspicion” it is contraband. We know that the force used in strip searches are unnecessary and violent. We know they disproportionately impact Indigenous Australians and Indigenous children. Why has nothing been done about it?

This is necessary law reform for the protection of women, children and Indigenous Australians. This is what happens when law and order is a priority value of politicians over the safety of our citizens. Sexual assault is still sexual assault even if its government sanctioned or protected by law.