Report shows NSW Police conducted 82.000 strip searches over decade

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A new report has revealed that NSW Police have conducted more than 82 thousand strip searches over a decade but found no drugs in nearly nine out of ten cases. The analysis of police data also shows that only a tiny fraction of people strip searched are eventually convicted of drug supply offences. That's prompted renewed calls to ban most types of strip searches and outlaw them for everyone under 18.

Transcript

00:00Well, interestingly, this report is based on figures which had to be obtained from Parliament

00:06by the Greens MP Kate Fairman after the Redfern Legal Centre applied under freedom of information

00:11laws for this police statistics and were knocked back.

00:14So what it's delivered is basically a decade's worth of data about the number of searches

00:19that have been happening and also the, I guess, the success rate about whether they've found

00:23drugs and in 86.5% of cases over this period from 2014 to 2023, no drugs have been found

00:31in those searches.

00:32So obviously we do see at music festivals in particular in New South Wales, a large number

00:36of people be searched, but it turns out that it's only 13.5% where any amount of drugs is

00:42found.

00:43And of course that doesn't take into account that only a much smaller fraction of people

00:46are found with any, you know, large amount of drugs on them, which is obviously what

00:50police always say they're targeting, that drug supply.

00:54So looking at these figures, for example, in 2014, less than 1% of cases actually resulted

01:00in a conviction for drug supply.

01:02So it's a very small number of people that are being caught in this net and it has prompted,

01:07you know, renewed calls to end these searches, particularly for searches which are done on

01:12the suspicion of drug possession, which is the vast majority of those music festival cases,

01:16certainly.

01:17I should say that this report also doesn't say where the searches took place.

01:21So it might be that some of them were in prisons or people were in custody, but we do know

01:24that a very large number of them do happen at music festivals, which has been really under

01:29a lot of scrutiny in recent years.

01:31So people like the Redfern Legal Centre and Harm Reduction Australia, who are responsible

01:36for analysing these figures and putting out this report today, are calling for an end to

01:40those searches which are based on the suspicion of drug possession.

01:43They're calling for an end to all searches for people under the age of 18, because in

01:47New South Wales, you can still be searched if you're 10 years old and above, which is

01:53obviously quite young.

01:54And they're basically saying that, you know, these figures show it's a lot of money and

01:58resources that are being put into these searches without a lot of result.

02:03The Premier, Chris Minns, this morning has said that there have been some changes made

02:08to the practice in the last couple of years.

02:10There was a big report in 2023.

02:12The LECC, which is the internal sort of police investigation, looked at this practice and

02:18came up with a number of recommendations.

02:20And a lot of those, Chris Minns says, were about training and they have been implemented.

02:24So here's what he's had to say.

02:26We don't want people to be in a situation where, you know, police have to undertake these

02:34searches.

02:35But there's really no alternative in many circumstances because police are faced with the widespread

02:40distribution of illegal substances that, in the right circumstances, can be deadly.

02:46And I know, I mean, I think training must be a part of the process.

02:51I think having a common sense trial about pill testing is important as well.

02:56But if we were in a situation where there was absolutely no searches, there was no drug

03:00detection dogs, it was really carp's lunch at music festivals, I think that you would

03:05have, you would have major health challenges and I think you'd have more deaths at music festivals

03:09than we're currently seeing.

03:11So Chris Minns there saying essentially that he thinks they are a necessary procedure to continue.

03:16Interestingly, there are still a number of those recommendations from the LACC that haven't

03:20been implemented.

03:22And some of them actually call for parliament to legislate around this practice, particularly

03:26what sorts of requests can be made.

03:29Some of those invasive requests that are sometimes made as part of a strip search.

03:32It wants parliament, it's suggested that parliament should look at those.

03:35Now that hasn't happened.

03:36So there are a number of areas which even from that report by police themselves in 2023

03:41haven't, haven't yet been addressed.

03:42So obviously we'll continue to see this being an issue.

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