West Midlands Police facing allegations of abuse in custody
A woman claims she was strip searched and left without clothes by officers.
Last updated 28th Jul 2023
West Midlands Police is the latest force facing allegations of inappropriate strip searches while women were held in custody.
One claims officers left her without clothes for 16 hours - although the force insists no offences were committed.
Sinead Foley was arrested and later released without charge, but left with traumatic memories of her time in custody.
"They were like savages," said the 37-year-old, who was strip searched by police in November last year.
Using a subject access request, she has obtained some of the CCTV of her time in the cell, which shows her being undressed on the floor by female officers.
"It just felt like they could violate me, and they're allowed to do it," she said.
"You can see I'm compliant, so there's no need to be dragging people's clothes off forcibly. It's totally inhumane."
A statement from West Midlands Police said: "Following the arrest of a woman on 27 November last year, officers and staff became increasingly concerned for her welfare and took a number of steps to ensure her safety while she was in custody.
"It became necessary to arrange medical attention and to remove her clothing due to concerns for her safety and mental health.
"She was given blankets and water, but custody staff were unable to provide her with food and replacement clothing initially due to her aggressive behaviour and risk to cause herself harm.
"Upon request she was provided with CCTV footage which showed her being booked into custody, taken to her cell and searched and shows no offences were committed by officers.
"By the time a request for further footage of her sleeping overnight had been received, it had been automatically deleted from force systems, in line with our data retention policy which ensures personal data is not kept for longer than necessary.
"A review of the CCTV showing her time in custody took place a number of months ago, and we were satisfied that officers acted accordingly after becoming concerned for her safety. "