Most correctional personnel understand how important properly searching prisoners are in terms of keeping staff physically and legally safe. Nevertheless, mistakes are made every day with this primary staff safety function.
For instance, a very popular piece of Internet video footage from a police interview room probably demonstrates this problem best. The scene opens with an officer walking an unrestrained prisoner into an interview room. The scene is very peaceful. The officer is relaxed. The prisoner appears calm. The officer even gets the sitting prisoner a bottle of water before walking out of the room for a moment.
The prisoner drinks a sip of water before slowly and deliberately pulling a gun from him waistband and blowing his brains out. After the officer runs back into the room and says “Oh Fuck,” someone asks, “Where did he get it?” The first officer responds, “Nobody shook him.” This, of course, is an understatement.
How could this happen. As correctional personnel know, street officers very often don’t search prisoners very well before turning them over. It goes without saying that more thorough searches are necessary throughout the system that brings a prisoner in from the street. There is a lot of confusion as to how to search or even what kind of search was performed.
The purpose of this tactical tip is to formalize the terminology and define exactly what is supposed to happen at each level of search.
The types of searches conducted will depend on the circumstances. These levels of searches go from the least intrusive to most intrusive searches. The most common categories:
Visual Search: Visually looking for weapons and other contraband.
Frisk Search: A limited type of search in which the intent is to discover obvious weapons by patting down the subject in the area of the body where a weapon is suspected to exist (sometime referred to as the “lunge area”).
Full-Body Search: Top to bottom search without removing outer clothing and/or shoes.
Custodial Search: Complete search from head to the feet after removal of all secondary outer clothing (not including underwear or the brassiere of a female) and personal property from the inmate’s control. This includes the removal of shoes and socks.
Strip Search: Search of an unclothed prisoner for contraband. This level of search is often limited by state statute or departmental policy.
Body Content Search: Generally includes any of the following tests: breath, urine, blood, or X-ray.
Body Cavity Search: Digital (finger) or instrument intrusion into a person’s rectum, anus or the vagina of a female. (Does not include ears, nose or mouth).
What is important here is that we need to develop a list of common defininitions and terminology for describing what level of search an officer has conducted. This will allow fellow officers from multiple jurisdictions to accurately describe what level of search the officer turning over the prisoner has conducted.
The truth of the matter is that most street officers conduct only a Visual Search or a Frisk Search on their prisoners at the point of arrest. Even prisoners in custody often get only a cursory Full-Search. Even prisoners moving from one correctional facility to another often do not get a thorough Custodial Search or Strip Search.
Once you have the Levels of Search terminology and definitions in place, please keep in mind the following searching concepts:
A. Provide the appropriate Level of Search based on your training, experience, policy and procedures of your institution, and the fact situation known to you at the time.
B. Wear protective searching gloves due to contagious disease considerations.
C. With prisoners in custody, search when you accept / leave in non-sterile area / at turn-over.
D. Avoid the Inside Position, search from Level Three.
E. Be thorough / systematic / top to bottom.
F. Look before touching.
G. Watch for weapons / sharp objects / instruments of escape.
H. Search with the prisoners feet spread & knees bent while using the inner blade of the hand positioning for maximum contraband detection.
I. Areas most often missed: outer garments / hair / mouth / collar / small of back / waist band / armpits / breast area / lower abdominal area / crotch area / buttocks / behind the knees / up the sleeves / bottom of feet.
J. When possible, have officers of the same sex search the prisoner.
K. Always maintain a professional demeanor to assist in avoiding prisoner complaints.
Finally, remember to search your prisoner again prior to turning them over to another officer. It is always better to find your own mistakes. This is a hard lesson learned from the prisoner suicide incident that introduced this tactical tip.
