Strip searches, class actions & culture: Where NSW policing meets the festival fence

Cameron Smith
Oct 9
2 min read

In the latest episode of our podcast, we talk frankly about police accountability in NSW—especially around strip searches at music festivals—and how these practices collide with culture, safety, and trust.

The spark is a case discussed on the show: a woman unlawfully strip-searched at Splendour in the Grass in 2018 who was awarded damages, and what that ruling could mean for a much larger class action alleging thousands of unlawful searches between 2016–2022.

We also zoom out: training gaps, record-keeping failures, and why the threshold for an invasive search must be extraordinarily high. Along the way, we touch on festival safety, pill-testing debates, and whether new NSW Police leadership signals meaningful change, or just new language on old habits.

Police and sniffer dogs at Splendour in the Grass in 2018. Image: Marc Grimwade

Content note: We discuss invasive search procedures and trauma.

What we cover

What happened at Splendour (2018): How a drug-dog indication escalated into a strip search deemed unlawful in court, and why the judge’s remarks on training and documentation matter.
Beyond one case: The role of class actions in surfacing systemic issues, and why payouts alone don’t equal accountability.
Training & thresholds: The difference between an “urgent, necessary” search and the reality on the ground, and why transparent record-keeping is crucial.
Festival safety & pill testing: Why a heavy police presence can backfire on harm reduction, and what smarter policy could look like.
Leadership & culture: A new commissioner is in; will practice actually change?

Key takeaways

Strip searches are exceptionally invasive and should be exceptionally rare. Police policy says so, but practice hasn’t always matched.
Courts are scrutinising training and documentation, with failures here undermine legitimacy and outcomes.
Class action proceedings could reshape practice and costs - accountability shouldn’t stop at the cheque.
Harm-minimisation and smarter festival policy (including pill-testing settings) save lives and build trust.

Listen now to hear how policy, policing, and culture intersect—and what it’ll take to make real, systemic change.