CHILD Q BRINGS STRIP AND SEARCH TO LIGHT
In 2020, a 15 year-old Black schoolgirl, known as Child Q, was strip searched by two female police officers in her school. She was suspected of carrying cannabis.
However, she should have had a ‘parent or appropriate guardian’ present as well, but she didn't.
She was also on her period and made to remove her sanitary towel - but the officers didn’t find any drugs.
Child Q’s mum said Child Q was traumatised by the incident, and began self harming.
The Child Q incident led to protests in London, and an independent report began by the Children’s Commissioner to understand how often minors (under 18s) are strip searched, and to understand how the Child Q incident was allowed to happen.
DE SOUZA REPORT COULD BE THE “TIP OF THE ICEBERG”
The Police argue that strip searching is important to find drugs and weapons - and prevent youth violence.
Dame de Souza’s report found that:
Black children are 11x more likely than white children to be strip searched;
In over half of strip searches no appropriate adult was present (which is illegal except in "cases of urgency");
Children as young as 8 have been strip searched;
24% of searches were on children aged 10-15;
51% of strip searches resulted in no further action.
TNM spoke to Louise King from Just For Kids Law, who are representing Child Q in the legal case against her school.
Louise said that Black children are ‘over-policed’ and that Black children are more likely to be treated as adults than their white peers.
She said that sometimes strip searching is acceptable - especially if a young person is at risk. But she says that there should be stricter rules around how the Police can use strip searches, and we should use alternatives - like body scanners.
Stafford Scott, a community activist from Tottenham, agreed with Just For Kids. He told us that strip searching should be carried out only in rare circumstances and under the closest supervision.
We put these ideas to the Met Police who told us that they have “overused this type of search”. Now, the Met only strip-search when “absolutely appropriate” which has led to a “considerable reduction in the number of searches being carried out”.
TNM was also told by a Home Office spokesperson that “no one should be subject to strip search on the basis of race or ethnicity and safeguards exist to prevent this”. The Home Office are the government body ultimately in charge of the police in England and Wales.
BUILDING TRUST IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY
As well as Dame De Souza’s, another independent report was recently published by Baroness Casey into the Met Police. She described the police as ‘institutionally racist’. The phrase was first used over twenty years ago, about the murder of a Black man, Stephen Lawrence, in London. However, the Met Police have refused to use this phrase, and don’t believe it’s true.
Stafford Scott told us that he “[doesn't] know what trust between [his] community and the police looks like” and that until the Police admit they are ‘institutionally racist’, there is a “failure to move forward in any way whatsoever”.
One issue highlighted by the De Souza report is an ‘adultification bias’ towards Black children by the police. This is when Black children are thought of as ‘threatening’ or ‘streetwise’ due to their race, and then treated as if they were adults by the Police.
Andy George, President of the National Black Policing Association, told TNM this comes from racial stereotypes of Black people held by some officers. He believes that the lack of racial diversity in the police force, which is 93.1% white (2019) is a problem.
Andy has called for more checks and balances across police forces to root out racism. To rebuild trust with communities, he says the Police need to communicate better and build relationships, and to tackle crime we must address the root causes of “poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity”.
The Met Police said that what happened to Child Q was "truly regrettable" and that the strip search should not have happened. Four officers are being investigated for gross misconduct relating to the incident.