A new report from Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) has revealed some damning statistics about police strip searches in NSW. The very detailed report calls into question the justification for traumatic intrusive strip searches, in the name of “drug supply reduction”. In the 10 years covered by the report, NSW Police strip searched 82,471 people. Of these, only 1,182 were convicted of supply — a mere 1.43%. That’s a lot of trauma inflicted, for very little supply reduction.

If you’re at a music festival in Australia and police are patrolling with drug sniffer dogs, you know you’re in NSW. On Monday, May 5, the NSW Supreme Court began hearing a class action suit brought on behalf of more than 3000 festival goers over unlawful strip searches between 2016 and 2022.
[CW: sexual assault; descriptions of invasive police searches]

Users News investigates police responses to mental health emergencies and the possibilities and realities of alternative first responders. This is a deep dive into the options available to you in a time of severe mental distress and why police may not always be the best people for this job.