The law in New South Wales is quite clear. A minor is any person of either gender who has not attained eighteen years of age. In the event that police have dealings with them, it must be done in circumstances where a parent or guardian is present. It seems that law has been consistently broken when police have employed strip searches as their means of detecting illegal drugs being carried into music festivals.
The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission is critical of the understanding held by police officers regarding their search powers. One officer conceded at a public enquiry that all nineteen strip searches held at one music festival may have been illegal. Despite this notion that they were acting illegally, the searches were carried by police who had sworn an oath to uphold the law.
Music festivals are on hold during this Coronavirus pandemic, but this situation is unresolved and it is quite clear the police hierarchy is doing nothing to implement a clear set of rules. The other issue causing distress is lack of privacy during strip searches. This government oversight body was critical of an sixteen year old girl being ordered to undress in a room with an exterior door that could not be fully closed.
The Commission enquired into five reports of illegal strip searches and delivered a finding that all had been undertaken illegally. It was noted that none had detected any prohibited drugs. That raised the question of how subjects to be searched are selected and often that is by interest shown by a police sniffer dog moving through the crowd at ground level. Drugs simply dropped at the sight of those police dogs could contaminate innocent festivalgoers shoes and attract the dog's attention.
The police do not have to give a reason for a strip search and it is quite possible this power is being used to exact retribution on fans deemed insolent or who offer cheek to the police manning festival entrances. There would be a degree of satisfaction in humiliating such an offender by forcing them to strip naked and adopt positions that allow a search of the private parts of their bodies. It is quite possible some police derive satisfaction from the distress their powers enable them to inflict.
The fact remains that this lawful commission has found our police have acted illegally and they are not being brought to justice. It is time the police hierarchy issued clear orders on when searches are permitted, how they are to be carried out and in what circumstances. Any deviation from those rules and the police concerned would face criminal proceedings in a court of law. A police officer is subjected to the law in exactly the same measure as the citizens they police.
Strip searches have been a running sore between the police and the public for too long. Its about time a clear set of rules injected sanity into the issue.
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