19.2-59.1 - Strip searches prohibited; exceptions; how strip searches conducted.
§ 19.2-59.1. Strip searches prohibited; exceptions; how strip searchesconducted.
A. No person in custodial arrest for a traffic infraction, Class 3 or Class 4misdemeanor, or a violation of a city, county, or town ordinance, which ispunishable by no more than thirty days in jail shall be strip searched unlessthere is reasonable cause to believe on the part of a law-enforcement officerauthorizing the search that the individual is concealing a weapon. All stripsearches conducted under this section shall be performed by persons of thesame sex as the person arrested and on premises where the search cannot beobserved by persons not physically conducting the search.
B. A regional jail superintendent or the chief of police or the sheriff ofthe county or city shall develop a written policy regarding strip searches.
C. A search of any body cavity must be performed under sanitary conditionsand a search of any body cavity, other than the mouth, shall be conductedeither by or under the supervision of medically trained personnel.
D. Strip searches authorized pursuant to the exceptions stated in subsectionA of this section shall be conducted by a law-enforcement officer as definedin § 9.1-101.
E. The provisions of this section shall not apply when the person is takeninto custody by or remanded to a law-enforcement officer pursuant to acircuit or district court order.
F. For purposes of this section, "strip search" shall mean having anarrested person remove or arrange some or all of his clothing so as to permita visual inspection of the genitals, buttocks, anus, female breasts, orundergarments of such person.
G. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a sheriff or a regional jailsuperintendent from requiring that inmates take hot water and soap showersand be subjected to visual inspection upon assignment to the generalpopulation area of the jail or upon determination by the sheriff or regionaljail superintendent that the inmate must be held at the jail by reason of hisinability to post bond after reasonable opportunity to do so.
(1981, c. 608; 1995, c. 112.)