The controversial practice of strip searching is still happening across the NSW with one of the major targets being music festivals.
New South Wales police reportedly documented 122 total strip searches on girls under the age of 18 over the past three years. Included, an allegedly illegal strip search of a 16-year-old at a music festival and the cases of two 12-year-olds.
In total, police conducted 3,919 strip searches on women in the NSW since 2016, via data obtained by the Redfern Legal Centre. Women under the age of 15 accounted for nearly half of those searches.
During such procedures, police were permitted to instruct people to squat and/or lift testicles, breasts, or buttocks as part of the strip search. In 66% of cases they found nothing.
“Girls as young as 12 and 13, some just finishing primary school, are being taken by police to a strange place and ordered by someone with a huge amount of power to take off their clothes,” Samantha Lee, the head of police accountability at the Redfern Legal Centre said.
“There is no doubt these young women would have been scared, some terrified and most having no idea of their legal rights.”
Source: The Guardian