London police admit ‘traumatic’ strip searches on 650 children — 58% of them Black

LONDON, (AA) – Over 600 children — 58% of them Black — were subjected to “intrusive and traumatic” strip searches by the UK’s Metropolitan Police over a period of two years, a report from the Children’s Commissioner of England revealed on Monday.

From 2018 to 2020, police stopped and conducted strip searches on 650 children, with an average of one per day in 2020. The children were as young as 10 years old, and a quarter of the minors searched were aged 15 or under, Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said in a press statement issued in London.

It said 58% of the boys who were strip-searched were Black. Over half of all boys strip-searched were Black in each of the years that data was provided and in 2018 this figure was 75%. Black young men aged 16-17 accounted for 42% of all strip searches.

The report shed light on the Met Police’s discriminatory policies, in which the majority of children targeted by the force were either Black or of other ethnic minorities, with the majority being innocent of police suspicions and assumptions.

It also found that in most cases, children were found to be innocent.

Last week, the Campaign Against Arms Trade and the Network for Police Monitoring issued a report, condemning the rising hyper-militarization of UK police forces in recent years. It warned of threats to freedom of speech, association and protest, as well as the rights of migrants and asylum seekers in search of a better life in the UK.