IOPC responds to Children's Commissioner's report on child strip searches

Andrew Johnson, IOPC Director for Policy, Strategy and Impact, said: “We welcome the latest report from the Children’s Commissioner regarding strip searches of children outside of police custody.

“The report highlights some areas of good progress including an improvement in police compliancy and an overall drop in the number of strip searches taking place.

“However it also identified a number of ongoing concerns we have previously highlighted including disproportionality – with Black children almost eight times more likely to be strip searched than White children - and issues around adultification, with Black children far more likely to have their ‘build’ identified as a reason for force being used.

“It is concerning that the report identified that almost 30 percent of strip searches involved children who had been strip searched previously.

“We support the Children’s Commissioner’s call for legislation to be updated swiftly to better safeguard children and vulnerable adults.

“Our own investigations into incidents involving child strip searches led to a series of 10 national recommendations aimed to improve legislation and policing practice.

“While most of these have been implemented, further progress from those within policing is needed.

“We will continue working to help drive change that will improve policing practice of strip searches and the experiences of children and vulnerable adults involved.”