CODE OF VIRGINIA

STRIP SEARCHES PROHIBITED; EXCEPTIONS; HOW STRIP SEARCHES CONDUCTED (§
19.2-59.1)

A. No person in custodial arrest for a traffic infraction, Class 3 or Class 4
misdemeanor, or a violation of a city, county, or town ordinance, which is
punishable by no more than thirty days in jail shall be strip searched unless
there is reasonable cause to believe on the part of a law-enforcement officer
authorizing the search that the individual is concealing a weapon. All strip
searches conducted under this section shall be performed by persons of the same
sex as the person arrested and on premises where the search cannot be observed
by persons not physically conducting the search.

B. A regional jail superintendent or the chief of police or the sheriff of the
county or city shall develop a written policy regarding strip searches.

C. A search of any body cavity must be performed under sanitary conditions and a
search of any body cavity, other than the mouth, shall be conducted either by or
under the supervision of medically trained personnel.

D. Strip searches authorized pursuant to the exceptions stated in subsection A
of this section shall be conducted by a law-enforcement officer as defined in §
9.1-101.

E. The provisions of this section shall not apply when the person is taken into
custody by or remanded to a law-enforcement officer pursuant to a circuit or
district court order.

F. For purposes of this section, “strip search” shall mean having an
arrested person remove or arrange some or all of his clothing so as to permit a
visual inspection of the genitals, buttocks, anus, female breasts, or
undergarments of such person.

G. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a sheriff or a regional jail
superintendent from requiring that inmates take hot water and soap showers and
be subjected to visual inspection upon assignment to the general population area
of the jail or upon determination by the sheriff or regional jail superintendent
that the inmate must be held at the jail by reason of his inability to post bond
after reasonable opportunity to do so.

HISTORY: 1981, c. 608; 1995, c. 112.