On average, NSW Police conduct more than 100 strip searches at train stations per year, according to Redfern Legal Centre (RLC).
RLC analysed police data from 2016 to 2024. It found strip searches disproportionately impacted First Nations people.
Police at train stations carried out more than 800 strip searches over an eight-year period.
RLC has suggested the searches could be in violation of NSW law.
Strip searches
There are two types of police searches in NSW. General searches involve police patting down a person’s outer clothing, and passing a metal detector over them.
Under NSW law, strip searches – when a person is required to remove their clothing – should only be carried out in “serious and urgent” circumstances.
Before conducting any search, an officer must have a reasonable suspicion that a person is carrying an unlawful item, like illicit drugs.
NSW Police cannot search a child younger than 10.
Findings
From 2016 to 2024, the RLC found NSW Police conducted 883 strip searches at train stations.
Nearly 8% (66) of those searched were children aged between 10 and 17.
82 of those searched were First Nations people, totalling 9% of all strip searches.
3.4% of NSW’s population are First Nations people.
Law
RLC argued that some of these strip searches could have been illegal under NSW’s Law Enforcement Act.
The law requires police conducting a strip search to provide “reasonable privacy for the person searched”. This includes searching them in a “private area”.
RLC supervising solicitor Samantha Lee said: “There is no privacy at a train station… subjecting children to this invasive procedure in such a public space is appalling.”
Government response
A spokesperson for NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley told TDA that “police take their powers extremely seriously,” and that police must conduct searches “in line with the Law Enforcement Act.”
The spokesperson said NSW Police has “made several improvements to its strip search processes,” such as “additional training” and “triage officers at events”.
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