Strip Searches & Underwire Bras
A strip search is “ the removal or rearrangement of some or all of the clothing of a person so as to permit a visual inspection of a person’s private areas, namely genitals, buttocks, breasts (in the case of a female), or undergarments.” R. v. Golden , 2001 SCC 83 (CanLII) , [2001] 3S.C.R. The common law search incident to arrest power includes the authority to conduct a strip search. However, t he serious infringements of privacy and personal dignity that are inevitable consequences of strip searches require that, to be constitutionally valid, the strip search must be: 1. Conducted as an incident to a lawful arrest A strip search will be incident to a lawful arrest in two situations: a. where it is conducted to discover evidence related to the reason for the arrest itself; and/or b. for the purpose of discovering weapons in the arrestee’s possession if a frisk or pat-down search reveals a possible weapo...