Police publish internal document after The Sunday Times makes a request under the Freedom of Information Act to gain access

Police have disclosed sensitive guidelines regulating strip searches after The Sunday Times made a request under the Freedom of Information Act, which came into force last month.

Crucially, the detainee shall not be required to have all his clothes removed at the same time

It was the first request made to the police by any media organisation since the new law became fully functional.

The subject was at the centre of controversy last year when two Sliema councillors were strip-searched at police headquarters just before being questioned over the alleged theft of a laptop hard disk.

Top criminal lawyers had said the incident, involving councillors Martin Debono and Yves Cali, was an abuse of power and the police repeatedly refused to publish the internal guidelines on strip searches that were drawn up 10 years ago.

Mr Debono had said the “procedure went too far” and was humiliating.

Police sources at the time had said it was standard procedure for anyone held in custody to be searched, although it was not standard for someone to be asked to strip naked.

However, they added that the custodial officer would want to check whether the individual had any object with which he could self-harm.

The guidelines clearly stipulate that an officer conducting a body search must have “reasonable suspicion” that the detainee is carrying something illegal, an object that was or could be used in the commission of an offence.

But reasonable suspicion, the guidelines say, presupposes “the existence of facts or information”.

The rules of engagement are more onerous when the search involves the exposure of intimate body parts.

The guidelines stipulate that strip searches may only be carried out when the policeman has “reasonable suspicion that prohibited articles, or articles that have, or may be used in the commission of an offence, are concealed on a person’s body and cannot be otherwise detected”.

Yet in court last December, policeman Norbert Said – one of two officers present when the strip-search on Mr Debono took place – said under cross examination the aim of the search was “to look for everything”.

He said it was the custodial officer who decided on the type of search, keeping in mind that a detainee could inflict self-harm.

“You can have a blade. I am not saying that Mr Martin Debono on the day had a blade with him,” Mr Said replied when asked by the defence lawyer why the strip search was conducted.

Strip search guidelines state that the “thoroughness and extent of a search must depend on the nature of the object suspected of being carried, and the character of the person concerned”.

They also give a blow-by-blow account of how a strip search has to be conducted.

The number of officers present for a strip search shall be kept to a minimum of two unless circumstances demanded otherwise and they must be of the same sex as the detainee.

The strip search has to be carried out in a place that is “private and clean”, which is not accessible to the public and cannot be seen by anyone else besides the two officers involved.

Crucially, the detainee shall not be required to have all his clothes removed at the same time. At no stage should the detainee stand stark naked – as Mr Debono was – during the search.

In a two-step approach, the detainee will first remove the clothing on the upper part of his body and each garment will be checked separately.

The detainee will then put on the clothes and restart the process for the clothing on the bottom part of the body.

The police conducting the search may ask the detainee to hold his arms in the air, spread his legs or bend forward so that “a visual examination” of the genital and anal area can be held.

But the guidelines insist that “no physical contact or penetration whatsoever is to be carried out on any part of the body orifices except for the mouth”.

If any article is observed in the genital and anal areas, the officer will ask the detainee to remove it himself and if he refuses the search should be considered an intimate search and this “must” be carried out by a medical practitioner.

Apart from the guidelines, the police also released a separate document outlining the duties of the custodial officer, who is responsible for detainees.

See custody officers' guidelines in pdf below

ksansone@timesofmalta.com