Six police officers who forcibly stripped an intoxicated 22-year-old woman and left her naked in a police cell for 30 minutes should face disciplinary action, according to a British police watchdog.
The woman was taken into custody at a Chelsea police station
after police officers became suspicious she was on drugs and may
have concealed illegal substances in her clothing. The woman was
arrested “intoxicated, distressed and running in and out of a
road,” according to the report.
Four male police officers and only one female carried out the
search, contravening regulations that officers involved in the
process must be the same gender as the suspect.
The officers failed to produce a written record of the strip
search and undertake the procedure in line with police rules,
according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission
(IPCC). The IPCC has declared that the search was carried
out “without adequate justification.”
As she was detained in the police cell, her movements were being
broadcast to the custody desk by CCTV cameras.
“I find it difficult to understand why police officers think they
have the right to strip a young woman of all her clothes, leaving
her naked for half an hour and then expose her to being
filmed,” said IPCC Commissioner Derrick Campbell.
The Police Sergeant on duty should face a charge of gross
misconduct for oversight, as well as the five officers, ruled the
IPCC.
Two further officers are to be reprimanded by management after
one failed to investigate her claim that her drink had been
spiked in a club. Another “potentially affected the
woman’s decision to seek independent legal advice by suggesting
that she would be likely to leave the station sooner without
it.”
“This incident caused a great deal of distress to the
victim,” Campbell said. She had complained to the IPCC after
being dissatisfied with the way the Metropolitan police's
professional standards department dealt with her original
complaint.