More than six hundred children underwent “intrusive and traumatising” strip-searches by the Metropolitan Police over a two-year period, with black boys disproportionately targeted, figures show. Some 650 10-17-year-olds were strip-searched by Met officers between 2018 and 2020, according to data obtained from Scotland Yard by the Children’s Commissioner.
Of these children, 58% were described by the officer as being black, and more than 95% were boys. The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, requested the figures after the Child Q scandal came to light in March.
The 15-year-old schoolgirl was strip-searched by police while on her period after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at school. The search, by female Metropolitan Police officers, took place in 2020 without another adult present and in the knowledge that she was menstruating, a safeguarding report found.
