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The Metropolitan Police have referred a further eight cases of strip searches of children for independent investigation.
There was outrage over the case of Child Q, a 15-year-old black girl who was strip searched while menstruating at school without a suitable adult present. The police apologized and a local council report said the child’s treatment was partly the result of discrimination.
The Met announced on Friday it had referred a number of cases to the police regulator, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which said Britain’s largest force had asked them to investigate eight cases.
The Met said the cases “relate to separate incidents between December 2019 and March 2022 in which children aged 14 to 17 were strip-searched by incarcerated officers or were subjected to a more intimate search outside of custody.”
The force did not say if any of these took place in schools, nor did they specify the children’s ethnicity, and said it would implement reforms. It said the IOPC had already decided that two cases should be investigated by the Met itself.
The new cases referred to the IOPC are in addition to three already known to have been sent to the Police Inspectorate: the incident involving child Q, which occurred at a school in Hackney, east London, an incident involving a child named Child A , and one involving a woman named “Olivia”.
The Mayor of London has asked the Met to review all strip searches of children and is writing to the Police Inspectorate.
A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: “It is shocking and deeply worrying that so many cases of children being searched by police have been referred to the IOPC. The Mayor is extremely concerned about these cases and the Met has been asked by City Hall to conduct a review of all strip searches of children to ensure lessons are learned.
“The Mayor’s Office of Police and Crime will also be writing to Her Majesty’s Police Inspectorate to bring this matter to their attention.”
The Met said of the changes that an inspector must issue a permit before a child is strip-searched and a protection report is prepared.
The Met also said: “We have reviewed and made changes to the ‘further search’ policy for persons under 18 years of age. This is to ensure that the policy is appropriate and takes into account the protection review for child Q, and also that it recognizes the fact that a child in these circumstances may well be a vulnerable victim of exploitation by others, working in gangs, county lines and drugs involved in dealing.
“To ensure we have very clear control of this type of search, we have implemented new measures across the Met. An inspector must now not only require an interview with a supervisor and the presence of an appropriate adult, but must also grant authority before the search takes place to ensure proper oversight.”
The IOPC said: “We found that two of these referrals were amenable to local investigation by the MPS, which was completing its own investigations at the time of the referral. We continue to review the information available to determine what further action may be needed in relation to the others.”
