In UK, Black girls three times more likely to endure invasive forms of strip search by Met police: Report

A new report has claimed that Black girls are prone to endure more invasive form of strip search compared to other races by the Met police.

Around 110 female children and teenagers had to endure invasive strip-search between 2017 and 2022, exposing their private parts. And of those, around 47 per cent were Black females, according to a data analysed by Liberty Investigates.

The data was obtained by the campaign group, which exposes hidden human rights abuses, obtained through the freedom of information request.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The group claimed that the figures are disproportionate and the real figures might be higher than the one shared by the department.

The report came after a similar finding by the children’s commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, discovered that Black children were 11 times more likely to be strip-searched than the white kids.

But the data provided by the Liberty Investigates goes much more beyond the one shared by the children’s commissioner.

The report distinguishes between strip-searches which are less invasive, and those where the person’s intimate parts are exposed.

Across both types of strip-search for female children and teens up to the age of 19, the data found that 45 per cent of people searched were Black.

“Black female children are 2.7 times more likely than their white counterparts to be subjected by the Met Police to the most invasive form of strip-search, new figures suggest.”

"According to data obtained via Freedom of Information requests and analysed by Liberty Investigates, 110 female children and teenagers were strip-searched from 2017 to 2022 with intimate parts exposed.”

"Fifty-two of them, or 47 per cent, were Black, while London’s population of Black females up to 19 years old stands at 17.5 per cent,” it said.

The data comes a year after a 15-year-old Black schoolgirl was strip-searched by Met officers in 2020, exposing her intimate parts after she was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at her east London school.

Reacting to the report, a Metropolitan police spokesperson told Guardian, “We welcome the report by Dame Rachel de Souza, children’s commissioner, and were pleased to have played a part in her research. We fully acknowledge that we have overused this type of search.

“We have been making significant efforts to ensure the use of this tactic is absolutely appropriate in all circumstances and that our approach puts the child at the heart of decision making, with safeguarding of that child the absolute priority. This has resulted in a considerable reduction in the number of searches being carried out.”

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE