AAP General News (Australia)
08-15-2000
Qld; CJC calls for stricter strip search guidelines
A Criminal Justice Commission report has called for stricter guidelines for conducting
Queensland police strip searches.
CJC chairman BRENDAN BUTLER says there's little evidence of systematic abuse by police
and few complaints were made compared with the number of searches actually carried out.
Mr BUTLER says in the two-year period leading up to June this year, there were 66 complaints,
compared with over 120,000 searches carried out each year.
But he says the laws and procedures governing strip searches are inadequate.
He says strip searching can be a very difficult and demeaning process for some people,
and better guidelines could minimise their impact.
Mr BUTLER says the complaints in the report include allegations that two teenage girls
were ordered to strip and waddle like a duck at a police station in the southern Queensland
town of Warwick, to show that they weren't hiding weapons or drugs in their bodies.
He says the report didn't address specific cases which are dealt with as part of the
CJC's complaints process, but aimed to set out recommendations to be used as guidelines
by police.
AAP RTV rad/sc/smf/jn
KEYWORD: STRIP (BRISBANE)
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