Strip-searching is among the most intrusive powers police hold, yet systematic evidence on how it is applied has been scarce. New research by Dr Amal Ali of the London School of Economics, with co-researcher Abi Dymond, analysed more than 25,000 custody records from a single English police force covering 2018 to 2022, a force serving a predominantly white, rural area, to test whether ethnicity predicts who gets searched.
The statistical models controlled for offence type, mental health concerns, histories of self-harm, use of force and time of arrival. Even so, black detainees were more than twice as likely as white detainees to be strip-searched. Black men had about 2.3 times the odds of white men, and black children about 3.5 times the odds of white children after adjustment. Controlling for arresting offence, including drug offences, narrowed the gap only slightly.
The study, published in a SAGE criminology journal and summarised by the author in The Conversation, also found that detainees against whom force was used were nearly five times more likely to be strip-searched, though the sequence of events cannot be established from the records. The findings echo a London custody study from more than two decades ago, suggesting disparities have persisted despite successive reviews of police powers, and strengthen the case for mandatory recording and scrutiny of search decisions.