Sydney police asked a woman to remove her tampon during a strip-search, a law enforcement review revealed.
The woman was asked by the searching officer to remove her tampon during a drug detection operation outside The Star Casino in January 2019.
This was one of the five complaints investigated by a New South Wales police watchdog in a Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) report published July 21.
No drugs were found at the incident and the report revealed a "lack of clarity for frontline officers regarding the lawfulness of such a request".
Strike Force Blackboard was established to investigate complaints over incidents of strip searches performed on women by the NSW police force.
The Law Enforcement Powers and Responsibilities Act (LEPRA) states that police may only perform strip searches if "the seriousness and urgency of the circumstances" means that it is necessary to do so.
The review found that in many cases, police issued banning notices in circumstances where no offences were detected.
Other incidents investigated:
- A young woman was made to "cough and squat" while the police strip-searched her at the Hidden Music festival in March 2019.
The mother of the woman wrote to the Commission complaining her daughter was "violated, scared, and treated as a criminal when in fact she had done nothing wrong."
The young woman was then evicted from the festival and banned from the precinct for six months. No illicit drugs were found.
- A young woman was subjected to a strip search when attending the Secret Garden Festival in February 2019 as a performer. She was asked to "pull her underpants down and bend over."
The complainant described it as a "degrading act" and said immediately following the search, male police officers spoke to her "unprofessionally and laughed". No illicit drugs were found.
- An 18-year-old woman was strip-searched at the Midnight Music Festival in May 2018. The woman had her ticket cancelled and was escorted from the venue, despite having no illicit drugs found. The woman described her experience of being strip-searched, 'traumatic'.
In response to this investigation, the NSW Police Force produced a 'Person Search Manual' in August 2019 to ensure police officers are appropriately instructed as to how searches are carried out.
