POLICE will continue to be able to strip search children as young as 10 after the state government yesterday ignored calls for the law to be reviewed.
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Two Tasmania Police officers last week strip searched a 12-year-old Hobart girl after obtaining a warrant to search a Rokeby house for drugs.
Police confirmed the girl was twice strip searched on Wednesday in front of her mother by two attending female police officers.
They said she was searched for a second time due to her suspicious behaviour.
Police said the search occurred in privacy, behind closed doors in a bedroom.
Illegal drugs and money were taken from the home.
Several adults were charged with offences, but not the girl.
Under the Law Enforcement Act, a strip search cannot be performed on a child under 10.
Strip searches can be performed on minors aged 10 to 18 only if a parent or guardian is present.
A state government spokesman said the government had no intention of reviewing the law.
``The government has been advised that the search was conducted in strict accordance with the law,'' he said.
``Police have also confirmed the search was undertaken in the privacy of a closed-door bedroom by two policewomen in the presence of the girl's mother.''
Opposition police spokeswoman Elise Archer said the power of strip searches should be immediately reviewed so it was not abused.
``It should be an extreme and rare case that a strip search is performed on a child or minor,'' she said.
``The police do very good job . . . but we are talking about a 12-year-old child.''
Australian Lawyers Alliance president Greg Barns agreed the law needed to be changed.
``And I would take this further and say that people need to have redress when police overstep the mark, such as in circumstances like this, which can only be done through human rights legislation,'' he said.
``It is appalling that police think they can force a child to remove his or her clothes to be strip searched.
``This action could have a long-lasting traumatic effect on this child and I have no doubt that the child or her parents could seek legal action against the police if they wished to do so.''
Tasmania Police's media unit did not respond to calls for comment yesterday.
