Over 600 Kids Subject To "Traumatising" Strip-Search By London Cops: Data

London: London's under-fire police power strip-searched greater than 600 youngsters over a two-year interval, most of them black boys, in line with new knowledge launched Monday. England's commissioner for youngsters, Rachel de Souza, mentioned she was "deeply shocked" by the figures after acquiring them from the Metropolitan police. De Souza's request got here after Britain's largest police power was pressured to apologise in March over the case of "Child Q", which has sparked an investigation for gross misconduct into 4 officers. The 15-year-old black schoolgirl was strip-searched by feminine officers in 2020 after being wrongly suspected of carrying hashish, regardless of them being conscious she was menstruating. She was searched with out an "appropriate adult" current, and neither was an grownup in attendance in 23 % of the instances unearthed by de Souza. In whole, 650 minors aged 10-17 had been strip-searched by Met officers between 2018 and 2020, she discovered. Greater than 95 % had been boys, and 58 % of the 650 had been described by the officer as being black. De Souza mentioned she was "extremely concerned" on the ethnic imbalance, and mentioned Little one Q could also be a part of a much bigger "systemic problem around child protection" within the Met. The figures had gone up sharply 12 months after 12 months, she mentioned, and confirmed {that a} important variety of youngsters "are being subjected to this intrusive and traumatising practice each year". The London power has been rocked lately by a succession of incidents involving officers, together with final 12 months, when a diplomatic safety squad member was jailed for the kidnap, rape and homicide of Sarah Everard. A disaster of public confidence within the police noticed Cressida Dick resign as Met commissioner in February. In response to de Souza's findings, the Met mentioned it had already instituted adjustments "to ensure children subject to intrusive searches are dealt with appropriately and respectfully". Some youngsters could themselves be a "vulnerable victim of exploitation" by gangsters and drug criminals, it conceded. London mayor Sadiq Khan redoubled his criticism of the Met after slamming the power over the Little one Q case and different incidents. It was "deeply concerning" that so many physique searches had been occurring with out an grownup current, a spokesman for Khan mentioned. "And there remain serious wider issues with regard to disproportionality and the use of stop and search on young black boys," the spokesman mentioned. (This story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)