Prior permission from a police inspector will be needed in two London boroughs before a child can be strip-searched under new measures introduced following the Child Q scandal.
The case of Child Q – a 15-year-old black schoolgirl who was strip-searched by police while on her period after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis – sparked outrage and further heaped pressure on the embattled Metropolitan Police.
Her family is suing the force and her school over the incident, which happened in December 2020.
Now the force says it is starting a pilot across Hackney and Tower Hamlets to require an inspector to give approval before a strip-search takes place.
This will ensure “appropriate oversight of such an intrusive intervention”, deputy assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor said.
The pilot will be trialled in the two northeast London boroughs before the force considers expanding it across London.
What happened in the case of Child Q?
The search of Child Q, by female Metropolitan Police officers, took place without another adult present and in the knowledge that she was menstruating, a safeguarding report found.
A safeguarding practice review concluded the strip-search was unjustified and racism “was likely to have been an influencing factor”.
Three police officers have been investigated for misconduct by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which is finalising its report.
Scotland Yard has apologised and said the incident “should never have happened”.
MPs voiced their anger and demanded immediate action after the strip-search came to light, and policing minister Kit Malthouse admitted that the public was entitled to expect higher standards from the force.
It stirred heightened emotions from politicians, including Labour’s Hackney MP Diane Abbott, who said: “All parents are thinking ‘this could have been my daughter’.”
