I'm not trying to defend the met as obviously some mistakes were made here. It's just I hope they mistakes made in the heat of the moment rather than out sheer cruelty.

I'm not going to pretend I knew what went on in this case but there are reason why the police needed to do some of these things.

Firstly the stripping, when people are taken into police custody there numerous reason people will be stripped. For example if someone has tried to hang themselves in a cell before or had weapons hidden on their person. In this case it sounds like the lady was heavily under the influence drugs and causing enough of an issue to be arrested(obviously not her fault if she was spiked). How could the custody staff know if she had more hidden in her clothing or if she would self harm during her drug induced episode. They simply had to remove her clothing.

Once someone is stripped they are usually left with a paper or padded suit and a blanket. The person is then left to dress themselves, though if they are in some sort of drug induced psychosis getting dressed is not probably a priority. I don't agree with the pictures from the cell being broadcast to everyone else in the custody office, but someone in a distressed state like her would need constant monitoring and unfortunately I don't see a way around it.

One thing I don't agree with is, that it was done by male officers. Surely they could have monitored her in a holding cell until a few female officers were free to help with the search instead? Unless she was being so violent she had to be put in the cell immediately unless someone would get hurt, then maybe but it still doesn't sit right with me.

Regarding the mistake comment. If the arresting cops found a woman in a drug induced episode. How where they to know if she was the victim of a spiking or a regular user who taken to much? The article says the ambulance were present, but if she was being violent or resisting they would refuse to take her. She couldn't have just been left to the street as anything could have happened to her. The next day when the cops realised she was not usually the sort of person to get into these situations, it still doesn't mean she shouldn't have been arrested in the first place.

I think a lot of the police's current pr problems is that they never defend themselves to the public. Someone can make x, y or z allegations get in the press and the police just don't respond with any sort of gusto. It just make them look like they've got stuff to hide.