More than half strip searches of children carried out on black and Asian under 18’s, new data shows

Pic: © Imperial College London
Pic:  © Imperial College London.

Black children have been subjected to more than half of the strip searches of under-18-year-olds in Croydon, Hackney and Lewisham since 2019.

Tower Hamlets is the only of Eastlondonlines’ boroughs in which black children did not make up the majority of children strip searched over the past three years, with three-quarters of strip searches being carried out on Asian children.

Following the Child Q investigation and Baroness Casey’s recent damning review that concluded the Met is institutionally racist and sexist, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s new Action Plan attempts to rebuild trust with London’s black community. A new partnership framework between the Metropolitan Police Service and Safer Schools Officers to address the disproportionate policing of black school children was announced on Monday.

According to data from the Metropolitan Police, 28 of the 34 strip searches conducted in Lewisham since 2019 have been of black children, and there was no appropriate adult present at over a fifth of those searches. However, there was an appropriate adult present for all strip searches of white children.

Black Londoners are more than three times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white Londoners, the Mayor of London’s Action Plan revealed. Mayor Khan said: It’s simply not right that Black Londoners have less trust and confidence in our police service and it’s something the new Met Commissioner and I are determined to improve together.”

5% of strip searches carried out in England and Wales in 2022 were of children, with black boys being disproportionately targeted. The number of black children strip searched in Hackney and Lewisham since 2019 is more than five times greater than the number of white children. The difference in the number of black children strip searched in Croydon compared to white children is less severe, with a twofold increase.

An integral part to the Mayor’s plan is improving the transparency of the use of more thorough and intimate searches of under-18-year-olds by publishing data. The plan involves the Met working with School Safety Officers to see if black school children are being disproportionately targeted. 

The plan includes:

  • the analysis and publication of Body Worn Video to see how different groups experience stop and search
  • the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) increasing contact with London parents about their views on Safer Schools Officers
  • collection of data by Black Thrive from black communities in London about their experiences with the police

Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said: “I have been candid in saying that I know the Met has let people down – especially Black Londoners…Under my leadership, I am determined to root out those who corrupt our integrity and rebuild community confidence in policing once more so we can work with Black communities to reduce the disproportionate crime they experience.”

The Mayor’s Action Plan follows the strip-search of Child Q, a black 15-year-old schoolgirl in Hackney, by two police officers in December 2020.

A guardian was not notified, no appropriate adult was present during the search and no drugs were found on her. Her mother told the review that after the incident her daughter “screams when [she] sees/hears the police”. 

There have been two strip searches of females under-18 in Hackney since 2019 and there was no appropriate adult present for either of them, one of which was of Child Q. 

Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, said the strip search of Child Q was not an “isolated” incident. De Souza wrote to all police forces in England and Wales asking for figures on how many children have been strip-searched by officers since 2018 and she will be publishing an analysis of the data early next year. 

Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, told Eastlondonlines: “I am glad that Dame Rachel de Souza is writing to every police force in England and Wales to obtain more information. I am also glad that she has pointed out the disproportionate number of black children who are strip searched…I think that she should pay more attention to the school’s role in the Child Q incident.”

Leave a Reply