Strip searches: A clear standard

Although Pennsylvania has no rules governing when county jails may strip-search inmates, the legal guidelines have been clear for years.

Many jails follow a standard laid down by the courts and summed up in a model policy developed in the 1990s by the International Association of Chiefs of Police:

"Individuals arrested for traffic violations and other minor offenses of a nonviolent nature shall not be subject to strip searches unless the arresting officer has articulable, reasonable suspicion to believe that the individual is concealing contraband or weapons."