On Tuesday, a report published by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission detailed a series of complaints investigated by police after five women were strip-searched at music festivals in 2018 and 2019 and two were searched outside the Star casino in Sydney.
The police watchdog is urging the NSW Police Force to apologise for the “humiliating” and “traumatic” strip searches, that saw women being asked to remove tampons or “squat and cough”.
In March last year, NSW Police established Strike Force Blackford to investigate the complaints made against officers. The unit investigated complaints made by women who were searched at Hidden Music Festival, Secret Garden Music Festival, and The Star Casino.
One woman strip-searched outside the casino in January 2019 was asked to remove her tampon. The commission states that the investigation into the incident, “revealed a lack of clarity for frontline officers regarding the lawfulness of such a request”.
Another incident detailed in the report involved a young woman who was asked to squat and cough during Hidden Music Festival at Olympic Park in March 2019.
The report revealed that the young woman’s mother made a report against the officers involved, claiming that her daughter was not offered proper privacy, and was detained for over an hour before she was evicted and warned that she could not attend another festival for six months, despite not being in possession of any illicit substances.
An unnamed performer at Secret Garden Festival in February 2019 was required to pull down her underwear and bend over as part of a search. Again, no drugs were found on her person and the woman’s parents made a complaint to Premier Gladys Berejiklian, describing the search as a “degrading act”.
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The report revealed that policing of music festivals involved “significant police resources”, and often required police who were “not experienced in exercising the police powers commonly required at festivals”, to work.
The commission revealed a pattern of “recurring issues” that presented themselves at festivals.
“Many of the people who experienced a strip search investigated in Strike Force Blackford described their experience as humiliating or degrading. Persons searched stated they were requested to cough and squat or to bend over,” the commission said.
It also revealed that officers working festivals felt pressured to conduct strip searches.
The reports’ findings have prompted the watchdog to prescribe changes to police policy and training.
“Many practices have been substantially improved based on these particular investigations, a wider body of complaints that have been considered, the reports of the LECC and general policy considerations,” the report claims.
Despite the findings, the watchdog says NSW Police “do not intend” to reverse their instructions in the Person Search Manual, which allows officers to “amongst other things, request a person squat, lift their breasts, part their buttock cheeks or turn their body”.
An updated version of the manual is currently being prepared.
