New data obtained by the Redfern Legal Centre reveals NSW police have conducted over 900 strip searches at train stations since 2016. Legal experts suggest that these may contravene legal requirements of privacy.
The NSW police have conducted these strip searches disproportionately on First Nations people, who comprise 9% of the total number of searches. The 2021 census reports Australia’s First Nations population as 3.8% of the total population.
The data also reveals 66 strip searches at train stations were conducted on children aged between 10 and 17 years of age.
In March, the Redfern Legal Centre revealed the NSW police strip searched 1546 children between June 2016 and July 2023.
The legislation governing strip searches, Law Enforcement Powers and Responsibilities Act 2002 (NSW), states officers must carry out searches privately. Section 32 states the practice should provide “reasonable privacy for the person searched” and Section 33 says that the search should take place in a “private area…as far as is reasonably practicable in the circumstances”.
Samantha Lee, supervising solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, contends these strip searches may contravene such legislation.
Lee argued that “there is no privacy at a train station. Sometimes police set up curtain-like structures on the platform, but common sense tells you this is incredibly inadequate.”
“Subjecting children to this invasive procedure in such a public space is appalling.”
Under NSW law, a train station is considered a public place.
Redfern Legal Centre is asking the NSW government to take immediate action to change strip search laws. In a media release, the Redfern Legal Centre stated strip search laws “have become routinely applied by NSW Police, despite these powers being intended for exceptional circumstances only.”
When asked about these findings, a spokesperson for the NSW Police said, “A strip search will only be conducted if at a police station the searching officer suspects on reasonable grounds that the strip search is necessary for the purposes of the search, or in any other place if the officer suspects on reasonable grounds that the strip search is necessary for the purposes of the search and that the seriousness and urgency of the circumstances make the strip search necessary at that place.”
