<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/02/nsw-police-urged-stop-strip-searching-people-court-finds-conduct-issues>
"Advocates are calling on the New South Wales government to scrap
strip-searches of young people altogether, saying a landmark court ruling found
“systemic” issues with the way police have been using their powers.
Justice Dina Yehia handed down her findings in the NSW supreme court on Tuesday
in a class action brought by Slater and Gordon Lawyers and the Redfern Legal
Centre against the state of NSW.
The case alleged the vast majority of strip-searches conducted at music
festivals between 2016 and 2022 – some of which involved children – were
unlawful.
Yehia ruled that police suspicion that a person has a prohibited drug in their
possession “is not sufficient to conduct a strip-search”.
But data shows this has been the major reason for police to carry out
strip-searches across the board. Of the strip-searches conducted by police in
the 2018-19 financial year, 91% were based on suspicion that a person possessed
prohibited drugs, according to a 2019 University of NSW report that was
commissioned by the Redfern Legal Centre.
Yehia noted in her judgment that while police can carry out a pat-down search
based on the reasonable suspicion of drug possession, escalating this to a
strip-search requires the circumstances to be necessary, urgent and serious.
Sam Lee, a senior solicitor involved in the class action with Redfern Legal
Centre, said the judgment could pave the way for people who are strip-searched
to take legal action – and not just those at music festivals, but more broadly.
“What this judgment says is that the current practice has been unlawful, and
not just by one officer, but at a systemic level,” she said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
