FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REQUEST NUMBER: FOI Request 003905-16 REQUEST DETAILS: As part of my research I am requesting information on the numbers of 'strip searches' that have taken place within Suffolk Constabulary. A system search on the Authorisation of strip searches dating from... January 2011 to December 2015 I request the information to be provided as a monthly figure, for example... Jan 2011-58 cases Feb 2011-60 cases Nov 2015-40 cases Dec 2015-80 cases Effectively I'm requesting 60 brief searches and this is my prime request. As a secondary request I would like to know whether the 3660 authorisations could be quickly obtained to determine the ethnic / sexual / age breakdown? If such information can only be obtained from individual logon of each case then this will exceed the 'appropriate limit' and you will not provide this, otherwise please do. RESPONSE: Suffolk Constabulary has considered your request for information and our response is below. This response is correct as of 12 April 2017. The Constabulary has completed a search of the custody and crime systems for all records of strip searches authorised for the 2011 2015 calendar years. A total of 3,814 records have been located in total, and the information has been broken down by month, Year, age, ethnic appearance and gender in the tables below: Total number of Authorised strip searches 2011-2015 Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total 2011 38 52 50 45 56 31 35 31 42 38 52 55 525
2012 48 37 60 46 63 58 60 66 78 42 66 63 687 2013 63 76 58 63 79 72 87 76 85 71 68 79 877 2014 67 82 67 94 80 49 89 75 83 85 77 67 915 2015 51 62 75 62 74 73 94 63 51 60 54 91 810 Total 267 309 310 310 352 283 365 311 339 296 317 355 3814 Total Number of authorised strip searches, by Age Age 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total 13 1 1 14 3 3 1 1 8 16 15 4 5 10 12 11 42 16 8 18 10 15 17 68 17 17 36 27 43 28 151 18 32 36 49 42 35 194 19 32 40 50 62 37 221 20 47 30 36 45 30 188 21 37 37 45 71 20 210 22 23 33 44 39 40 179 23 25 31 44 35 28 163 24 23 33 39 41 32 168 25 31 26 37 29 25 148 26 29 30 33 33 41 166 27 12 32 35 32 34 145 28 21 24 41 35 45 166 29 8 18 32 22 24 104 30 15 20 20 23 31 109 31 14 18 32 26 17 107 32 8 12 19 30 25 94 33 9 16 30 26 28 109 34 18 15 21 23 27 104 35 10 13 30 13 22 88 36 11 16 29 17 16 89
37 10 13 14 15 17 69 38 5 13 10 27 19 74 39 10 10 17 17 18 72 40 8 12 17 14 14 65 41 6 8 8 11 14 47 42 6 16 10 16 17 65 43 7 2 11 18 13 51 44 12 14 11 23 11 71 45 6 6 5 11 18 46 46 6 7 11 4 4 32 47 4 10 4 17 6 41 48 1 6 15 3 5 30 49 4 6 7 2 19 50 1 5 4 3 9 22 51 1 5 3 1 1 11 52 1 1 4 5 3 14 53 1 1 1 2 5 10 54 1 1 1 3 55 1 2 3 56 4 2 6 57 1 1 1 1 4 58 1 2 3 59 1 1 1 1 4 60 2 2 1 1 6 61 1 1 1 1 4 62 1 1 2 64 1 1 65 1 1 2 66 1 1 69 1 1 70 1 1 2 71 1 1
73 1 1 75 1 1 Total number of authorised strip searches, by self-defined ethnicity Detainee Self Defined Ethnicity 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total African 3 3 Any Other Black Background 1 1 Asian - Any Other Asian Background 3 7 9 7 1 27 Asian - Bangladeshi 2 4 3 2 6 17 Asian - Indian 2 1 1 4 Asian - Pakistani 3 2 5 Black - African 21 32 24 42 29 148 Black - Any Other Black Background 20 19 42 47 18 146 Black - Caribbean 19 28 29 58 35 169 Caribbean 2 2 Mixed - Any Other Mixed Background 9 6 12 18 7 52 Mixed - White And Asian 1 2 2 1 6 Mixed - White And Black African 4 2 5 4 3 18 Mixed - White And Black Caribbean 10 8 11 17 11 57 Not Recorded 114 114 Not Stated 13 11 12 20 10 66 Other - Any Other Ethnic Group 3 4 2 4 5 18 Other - Chinese 1 1 White - Any Other White Background 36 47 36 50 35 204 White - British 374 513 684 638 518 2727 White - Irish 8 3 5 5 8 29
Total number of authorised strip searches, by Gender Gender 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total Female 75 92 110 131 124 532 Male 450 595 767 784 686 3282