London’s under-fire police power strip-searched greater than 600 kids, knowledge confirmed. (Representational)

London:

London’s under-fire police power strip-searched greater than 600 kids over a two-year interval, most of them black boys, in line with new knowledge launched Monday.

England’s commissioner for kids, Rachel de Souza, mentioned she was “deeply shocked” by the figures after acquiring them from the Metropolitan police.

De Souza’s request got here after Britain’s greatest police power was pressured to apologise in March over the case of “Child Q”, which has sparked an investigation for gross misconduct into 4 officers.

The 15-year-old black schoolgirl was strip-searched by feminine officers in 2020 after being wrongly suspected of carrying hashish, regardless of them being conscious she was menstruating.

She was searched with out an “appropriate adult” current, and neither was an grownup in attendance in 23 p.c of the circumstances unearthed by de Souza.

In complete, 650 minors aged 10-17 had been strip-searched by Met officers between 2018 and 2020, she discovered.

More than 95 p.c had been boys, and 58 p.c of the 650 had been described by the officer as being black.

De Souza mentioned she was “extremely concerned” on the ethnic imbalance, and mentioned Child Q could also be a part of an even bigger “systemic problem around child protection” within the Met.

The figures had gone up sharply yr after yr, she mentioned, and confirmed {that a} important variety of kids “are being subjected to this intrusive and traumatising practice each year”.

The London power has been rocked in recent times by a succession of incidents involving officers, together with final yr, when a diplomatic safety squad member was jailed for the kidnap, rape and homicide of Sarah Everard.

A disaster of public confidence within the police noticed Cressida Dick resign as Met commissioner in February.

In response to de Souza’s findings, the Met mentioned it had already instituted modifications “to ensure children subject to intrusive searches are dealt with appropriately and respectfully”.

Some kids might themselves be a “vulnerable victim of exploitation” by gangsters and drug criminals, it conceded.

London mayor Sadiq Khan redoubled his criticism of the Met after slamming the power over the Child Q case and different incidents.

It was “deeply concerning” that so many physique searches had been taking place with out an grownup current, a spokesman for Khan mentioned.

“And there remain serious wider issues with regard to disproportionality and the use of stop and search on young black boys,” the spokesman mentioned.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)