Met Police misreports intimate searches of children

The Met has admitted it misreported the fig of intimate searches that were carried retired connected children.

In 2021, the Met Police carried retired 269 "More Thorough Searches that exposure Intimate Parts" connected children. It antecedently reported the fig arsenic 99.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said past period the Met had "misused" the power.

"Each hunt means different kid traumatised by an enactment with the Met," Caroline Russell, Green London Assembly Member, said.

She called for much transparency implicit the fig of searches, wherever they are being carried out, and whether an due big is present.

In July Ms Russell asked for determination information for the 2021 searches, and connected Monday was told that the fig of 99 searches was "incorrect". The Met said the mistake was down to a "data transmission error".

The unit said that 57% of searches successful 2021 were carried retired astatine constabulary stations, 21% astatine location addresses, and 21% astatine different locations.

Speaking astatine a City Hall gathering connected Monday, Kenny Bowie, a manager astatine the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime, said helium was "pretty horrified" by the information transmission error.

The contented was precocious scrutinised by Dame Rachel de Souza, the children's commissioner for England.

She recovered that crossed the country, determination were "systemic problems with transparency, scrutiny and non-compliance with guidelines erstwhile children were being strip-searched nether stop-and-search powers".

The Met Police has antecedently said it has made argumentation changes regarding however intimate searches are conducted nether halt and search.

A spokesperson for the unit said: "We person made important steps successful the grooming of our officers, consulting with our communities and ensuring the close oversight of halt and search, but we are not complacent, we cognize determination is much to beryllium done and we volition perceive and enactment connected what we hear."