Police strip-searches of children are ‘racist and traumatising’, say charities

The Children’s Society and the Runnymede Trust have hit out in the wake of a damning report by Dame Rachel de Souza.

Charities have hit out at police officers strip searching children (Alamy/PA)

Charities have criticised the findings of a report on police strip-searching of children as “shameful” and called for officer training to be reviewed in order to ensure young people are kept safe.

The breakdown of searches by ethnicity in the Children’s Commissioner’s research shows that “black children are disproportionately represented and subjected to this traumatising and intrusive practice”, the Children’s Society said.

The Runnymede Trust called for the power of police to strip-search children to be revoked and said “negative, bullyish, encounters with state institutions only breeds further distrust and sits at the heart of why policing is failing our communities”.