Strip search
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A strip search is a practice of searching a person for weapons or other contraband suspected of being hidden on their body or inside their clothing, and not found by performing a frisk search, but by requiring the person to remove some or all clothing. The search may involve an official performing an intimate person search and inspecting their personal effects and body cavities (mouth, vagina, rectum, etc.). A strip search is more intrusive than a frisk and requires legal authority. Regulations covering strip searches vary considerably and may be mandatory in some situations or discretionary in others.
Legality of strip searches
In North America,
Another legal issue is that of blanket strip searches, such as in jails where detainees are routinely strip searched prior to conviction of a crime. Courts have often held that blanket strip searches are acceptable only for convicted persons. For detainees pending trial, there must be a reasonable suspicion that the detainee is in possession of weapons or other contraband before a strip search can be conducted. The same often holds true for other situations such as airport security personnel and customs officers, but the dispute often hinges on what constitutes reasonable suspicion.
Incidental strip searches
In order to bypass the legal reasonable suspicion requirement, and because strip searches can be humiliating, the search is often made less overt, as part of an intake process, that includes a mandatory shower. For example, most prisons also include a mandatory shower along with a change of clothes. The shower serves to make the strip search less blatant as well as providing the additional benefit of removing contamination (in addition to removing weapons or other contraband). Many shelters require new arrivals to hand over all their clothing for a wash, as well as requiring them to have a shower. These rules also enable a discreet check for weapons or other contraband, with less legal implications, being less objectionable because the requirement is applied to everyone entering a facility. It is less offensive to clients than requiring them to undergo an overt strip search.
Security procedures at facilities that mine and process gold, silver, copper, and other high-value minerals may constitute an incidental strip search. At the end of the workday, miners must remove all work clothes before entering a shower facility and then exit nude through a metal detector to a separate changing room where street clothes are stored.
The courts have often held that requiring a person to have a shower as a condition of entry into a space (such as a prison, shelter, or the like) does not, in itself, constitute a strip search, even if the shower and surrounding space are so constructed as to afford visibility of the unclothed body by guards during the showering process.[citation needed]
Hospitals often also have a mandatory shower, during lockdown, when mass decontamination is called for. Paul Rega, M.D., FACEP has specifically identified mass decontamination as providing the added benefit of checking for weapons or other contraband, as well as searching for clues among the clothes of persons found at a terrorist attack crime scene where it is recognized that the perpetrator(s) could be among the persons detained for decontamination.[1]
Children
The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (August 2022) |
In 2014, it was reported that more than 4,600 children had been strip-searched by the Metropolitan Police in the preceding five years, with the youngest being ten years old. This was out of a total of 134,000 strip-searched. A charity described the number of younger children searched in this way as being "disturbing".[2] In 2022, it was reported that 650 children (between 10 and 17 years old) had been strip-searched by the same agency between 2018 and 2020. 58% of these children were described as black by the arresting officer; in 2018, this rose to 75%.[3] 70% of children who were strip-searched without an appropriate adult present – contrary to official Metropolitan Police guidance – were black boys.[4]
Procedure of strip searches
Partial strip searches are common at airports, for airport security, which often consists of:
- removal of shoes (and sometimes socks)
- removal of coat and jacket
- removal of belt;
- untucking of shirt.
If there is reason to suspect hidden objects, the person is then taken to a private room, which may consist of:
Electronic strip searches
Backscatter X-ray machines, Millimeter wave scanners, T-ray scans, and other modern technology provide the ability to see through clothing, to achieve a similar result to an actual strip search.
Notable lawsuits
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in R v Golden (2001)[5] that "strip-searches may only be done out of clear necessity with the permission of a supervisor and by members of the same sex."[6]
In
Four male teenage students were strip searched at
The Beard v. Whitmore Lake School District (2005) case arose in
In Safford Unified School District v. Redding (2009), the Supreme Court held that it was unconstitutional for school employees to strip search minor students, in this case students in the Safford, Arizona Unified School District.[9]
See also
- Don't touch my junk
- New South Wales Police Force strip search scandal
- Strip search phone call scam
- Undress code
References
- ^ Paul Rega, M.D., FACEP, 5/2000, Biological Terrorism Response Manual, "The removal of clothing as a decon procedure has the additional advantage of detecting a secondary device concealed on a victim"
- London Evening Standard. p. 22.
- ^ Weale, Sally; Dodd, Vikram (7 August 2022). "Revealed: Met police strip-searched 650 children in two-year period". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- inews.co.uk. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- ^ "R. v. Golden trial decision". Scc.lexum.org. 2001-12-06. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
- ^ "Strip-Searches". CBC News.
- ^ "Teachers seek to clear names after strip searches". USA Today. 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
- ^ "Ansonia school officials sued over strip searches". USA Today. 2009-03-25. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
- ^ Safford Unified School District v. Redding, 557 U.S. 364 (2009)
- Essex, N. (2005). Student Privacy Rights Involving Strip Searches. Education and the Law, 17(3), 105–110. 1
- "Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Burlington" (PDF). Supreme Court. Retrieved April 7, 2012.