Mayor responds to escalated IOPC investigation of Child Q officers
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, the independent body that investigates police conduct, has this week escalated its investigation into the officers who strip-searched Child Q from a misconduct investigation to a gross misconduct investigation.
This follows a safeguarding review of Child Q’s case by City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership, published in March, which concluded that Child Q should never have been strip searched, and found that across many of the professionals involved that day, there was an absence of a safeguarding-first approach to their practice.
“It is clear from the Child Q review that she was subjected to appalling, degrading and unnecessary treatment by police officers. The City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership found that racism was likely to be an 'influencing factor' in her search that day. That's why we welcome the IPOC uplifting its investigation to that of gross misconduct. We await the outcome of that investigation with interest. In the meantime, the Council continues to challenge the police on trust and confidence; review the role of police in schools; support schools to make changes that embed anti-racist practices; support staff and communities affected by this awful case; as well as pursuing national legislative changes that will ensure this can never happen again and so that children from Black and Global Majority backgrounds are better protected from harm and racism."
