Overview

• Raya Meredith, lead plaintiff in a class action representing over 3,000 individuals, was subjected to an unlawful strip search at the 2018 Splendour in the Grass festival, which NSW Police admitted in April 2025.
• Plaintiffs allege systemic failures in police training and supervision contributed to widespread non-compliance with statutory guidelines for strip searches.
• Court documents reveal NSW Police relied heavily on drug detection dogs, despite a known 30% accuracy rate, as justification for invasive searches at music festivals.
• No police records from the 2018 Splendour in the Grass strip searches documented the required legal grounds of seriousness or urgency for conducting such searches.
• Plaintiffs are seeking exemplary damages and judicial findings to hold NSW Police accountable for breaches of law and to prompt systemic reforms.