The research, published by the Children’s Commissioner for England, revealed that officers in the force carried out intervention searches on 650 young people aged 10 to 17 between 2018 and 2020. It was ordered following the case of Child Q – a 15-year-old black girl who was strip-searched at her east London school without an appropriate adult present. He was wrongly suspected of transporting cannabis. Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said the case had been wrongly characterized as a “one-off”. He explained: “In a movie search, the most intimate parts of you are searched. For any child, that will be traumatic and disturbing.” It is a legal requirement for an appropriate adult to be present, except in emergencies. Of the 650 searched over the three years, 19 out of 20 were boys and 58% were identified by the officer as black.
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Katrina Ffrench, the founding director of Unjust UK, said she was “absolutely horrified” by the evidence. He added: “The numbers are so high because they show that there is a problem within the Metropolitan Police and its treatment of black communities across London. “Unfortunately, young black children do not have the same innocence and rights as their white peers.” In 2018, more than two-thirds of those searched without anyone else present were black boys. Attorney Kevin Donoghue has represented children in other parts of the country who have gone through the experience. “The consequences for these children are very significant,” he said. “The common features and expressions given to me in handling these cases are a personal intrusion. “There is a violation by police officers that is very strongly felt and a violation of their personal integrity and physical autonomy that has been violated and it is a fact that cannot be undone. “An apology is not enough. Compensation is not enough.” In the Child Q case, four police officers are being investigated for serious misconduct and a serious case review has been carried out. The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that it was “moving at pace” to ensure that children subject to intervention investigations are treated with respect. And new measures have been introduced requiring an inspector to give authorization before an investigation can be carried out. He added: “We have ensured that our officers and staff have an updated understanding of the policy for conducting a ‘further enquiry’, particularly in relation to the requirement for an appropriate adult to be present. “We have also given officers advice on how to deal with schools, ensuring children are treated as children and considering safeguarding for under-18s.” In more than half of all children’s movie searches, no further action was taken. The Children’s Commissioner has been left wondering why so much is being carried out in the first place. He is also concerned about the “data holes” recorded by the Met Police. “For about one in five of the strip researchers, they can’t even tell me where they were conducted, so the data collection has to be better.”
