Seven strip searches carried out by the Metropolitan police on children aged 14 to 17 years old are being investigated by the police watchdog.
The Met has made a further seven voluntary referrals to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) – two referrals were sent back to the Met to investigate and the other five are under investigation.
The incidents took place between December 2019 and March 2022 where teenagers were strip-searched by officers in custody or were subject to “more intimate” searches outside custody.
The referrals come after three earlier cases faced probes by the IOPC.
Deputy assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor said the Met understand the “trauma and lasting impact” strip searches can have on young people and the public’s concerns following several cases.
He said strip searches in and out of custody are “important in ensuring the safety of the person being searched as well as protecting communities from drugs and weapons”.
Mr Taylor said a number of changes have already been made, including a “child safeguarding approach” adopted by officers.
He said: “We are also in the process of reviewing complaints received over the past three years in relation to strip searches involving children under the age of 18. This includes searches outside the custody environment where intimate parts are exposed.”
Policy allowing further searches for those aged under 18 has been reviewed and updated following a safeguarding review on a case involving a child, known as ‘Child Q’.
The child, who was 15, was strip-searched by female Met Police officers in 2020 after she was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at her east London school.
The search took place without another adult present and in the knowledge that she was menstruating, a safeguarding report found.
The local child safeguarding practice review, conducted by City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership (CHSCP), concluded the strip-search should never have happened and was unjustified.
It also concluded racism “was likely to have been an influencing factor”.
Scotland Yard said the actions of the officers involved was “regrettable” and it “should never have happened”.
