Privacy

The police strip searching of young women is an outrage

StopWatch has launched a new report #GIRLSMATTERTOO, looking at women and girls’ experiences of the police. Here is a guest blogpost by StopWatch about the issue…

A failure to safeguard female victims of crime. Unlawful strip searches used as a disciplinary tool. Unnecessary use of force during routine stops, often resulting in trauma. These are some of the shocking encounters with police experienced by racialised girls and young women surveyed for an upcoming StopWatch report.

Under a participatory action model of research, a team of girls and young women conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 Black, Asian and Mixed-race girls and young women in London and Manchester.

The respondents’ testimonies unveil recurring patterns of police misconduct, including: failing to safeguard victims of crime; minimising victims’ experiences; acting against protocol; verbal or emotional abuse; undertaking dangerous manoeuvres which escalated encounters; taking disproportionate measures in response to non-threatening behaviour; harassment; using police powers as an intimidation tactic; turning a blind eye to other officers’ misconduct; and acting above the law.

One interviewee said police officers ‘made jokes about the way I smelled, my clothes and my pubic hair’ during a strip search. Another reported being made to squat during a strip search – against the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice – before the officers who searched her admitted that they ‘were not looking for an item’ and had ‘conducted the search to punish her’.

The survey found that:

  • Of those interviewees who were searched, almost two thirds were not given a reason for the search;
  • None of the girls and women searched received a legally required record of the encounter from the police;
  • More than a third of interviewees who were searched were also strip searched, the majority of whom are Black;
  • Almost half of respondents stopped by police were in a vehicle at the time. All of them were Black;
  • Almost half of all interviewees were not given a reason for their stop, the majority of whom are Black.

Speaking about the project, peer researcher Sara Owusu said:

I’ve had some traumatic stop-and-search encounters and I’ve experienced first-hand humiliation and fear. Becoming a peer researcher was my way of taking control of that narrative… of letting people understand that my experiences don’t define me as a victim, but could be the fuel to the research.

  • Read the full StopWatch research here.