Strip search

These rules also enable a discreet check for weapons or other contraband, with less legal implications, being less objectionable because the requirement is applied to everyone entering a facility.

Security procedures at facilities that mine and process gold, silver, copper, and other high-value minerals may constitute an incidental strip search.

[1] Partial strip searches are common at airports, for airport security, which often consists of: If there is reason to suspect hidden objects, the person is then taken to a private room, which may consist of: Backscatter X-ray machines, Millimeter wave scanners, T-ray scans, and other modern technology provide the ability to see through clothing, to achieve a similar result to an actual strip search.

Following the introduction of a controversial law in 2001, New South Wales Police were given the power to deploy drug detection dogs at major public events such as music festivals, inside licensed premises (venues that serve alcohol) and at stations across the Sydney Trains network.

[4] In late 2014, reports were first published alleging that NSW Police were routinely using drug detection dog indications as a justification for conducting invasive strip searches, particularly at major events such as music festivals.

[5][6] At these events, officers have employed the use of structures such as ticket booths,[7][8]: 9 [9][10] tents,[8]: 12 [11]: 9 [12] makeshift partitions[13][14][15]: 7  and police vans[16][17] to strip search attendees.

[18][19][20] After stripping partially or completely naked, festival patrons have been asked to do things such as lift their breasts or genitals,[14][9] bend over,[21][17][8]: 4 [22] spread their buttocks apart[23][24] or squat and cough.

[31]: 25 [32]: 12  Separate data shows that during the same six-year period, officers conducted 5659 strip searches resulting from drug detection dog indications.

In a final report handed down in December 2020, the Commission found that "a recurrent issue throughout the inquiry was the failure of officers to comply with, or at least to properly account for their compliance with, the legal thresholds for conducting a strip search".

[32]: 3  The commission also noted that there had been a "significant increase" in the "number and proportion" of strip searches carried out following drug detection dog indications in the five years between 2014 and 2019.

Over the course of seven hours, all 463 staff and patrons inside the venue were detained and strip searched, supposedly under the auspices of finding illicit drugs.

A photo taken secretly during the raid was published on the front page of The Age newspaper several days later, with then Premier Jeff Kennett labelling the incident “extreme and disturbing”.

In 2014, footage obtained by Vice showed that CCTV cameras could see into these cubicles, leading to fears that protestors detained at the facility were filmed while strip searches were taking place.

[39] In August 2020, the Toronto Police Services Board agreed to pay $16.5 million dollars to settle a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of around 1100 people who were arrested during the 2010 G20 protests, including some who were detained at the Eastern Avenue detention centre.

The woman had been arrested for obstruction after attempting to offer a legal advice card to a black teenager during a stop and search in London.

[46] In March 2022, it was reported that Metropolitan Police officers had strip searched a 15-year-old black girl at her school in Hackney in 2020 after she was wrongly accused of possessing cannabis.

Shortly after the story was made public, a protest involving several hundred people was held outside Stoke Newington police station, amid concerns that the girl had been targeted because of her race.

"[54] In Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders (2012), the United States Supreme Court ruled that strip-searches are permitted for all arrests, including non-indictable, minor offenses.

[56] The Beard v. Whitmore Lake School District (2005) case arose in Michigan when a student reported that $364 had been stolen from her gym bag during a physical education class.

"The Correct Procedure for a Visual Search" – A 1990 video produced by the Federal Bureau of Prisons
Police and a drug detection dog at the entrance of the Defqon music festival in Sydney in 2017