NSW Police Slammed For Conducting Underage Strip Searches At Sydney Festival

NSW Police have been slammed for reportedly conducting strip searches on multiple underage punters at a Sydney music festival this past weekend.

According to ABC, 11 children were strip-searched at the under 18's Lost City festival at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday without a guardian present, however police say all strip searches conducted on the day were done in accordance with the law.

"There is no excuse for children to be exposed to this humiliating, traumatising and potentially illegal practice," Greens MP David Shoebridge said today.

“Two thirds of the time, strip searches turn up nothing and when they do find something, it's more than likely drugs for personal use. 

“What police will do is teach an entire generation of young people to rightly distrust the police force."

Police did confirm in a statement released yesterday that a 14-year-old girl and 17-year-old boy were charged with alleged drug supply at the festival and "detected 14 teenagers with prohibited drugs and will be dealt with under the Young Offenders Act".

It comes after the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) opened an inquiry into “the strip search of an underage female at the Splendour In The Grass music festival in July 2018 by NSW Police, and strip search practices more generally”.

One solicitor who worked at the 2018 event, Tracey Randall, told the LECC that police created an "us and them" mentality between patrons and authorities. 

Of the 143 people strip searched across that weekend, Randall said staff including "store holders, people working in bars, who were handling money," were also searched. 

None were found with drugs on their person. 

A police officer working at Splendour 2018 also admitted that some of the searches being conducted were "unlawful".

The Music has contacted NSW police and Lost City promoters for comment.

UPDATE: 

In a new statement released today, NSW Police say that 12 strip searches were conducted at the Lost City festival, with 11 resulting in positive detections.

Among the detections included a 14-year-old female allegedly found in possession of 31 MDMA capsules and a 16-year-old female allegedly in possession of four grams of ice.