20 Women Sue SF Sheriff’s Office Over Alleged Mass Strip Search

“These are not bugs in the system, these are the system, and we are here today to challenge that system,” he said.

The complaint alleges that in May of 2025, 12 sheriff’s deputies entered the women’s housing unit at the San Francisco jail at 425 Seventh St. and ordered women into the common area, where they were instructed one by one to participate in a search under armed guard.

The women say they were forced to remove their clothing, lift their breasts and spread their buttocks in front of male deputies, who were stationed as “partitions” on the staircase and upper tier of the housing unit, and in other positions with direct views of the women being searched.

Multiple women allege that they heard the supervising officer, Sgt. Ibarra, instruct a deputy not to deactivate her body-worn camera during the searches. According to their reports, Ibarra told the women that the footage might be “used for training purposes,” but would blur their genitalia before the footage was “released publicly.”

The San Francisco sheriff’s policy manual states that strip searches should be conducted in a private location, and that all employees present should be of the same gender identity as the person being searched, except in emergency situations. Department policy also prohibits body-worn cameras during such searches, the suit said.

“The Sheriff’s own policies forbid male staff during women’s strip searches and forbid body cameras during them. Both rules were broken on May 22, on a supervisor’s order,” said Anthony Label, one of the women’s lead attorneys.

“This is not rogue conduct. It is institutional policy, carried out by an agency that then punished the women who spoke up.”

The lawsuit follows an official claim the women filed with the city in November.

The Sheriff’s Office denied that male deputies strip-searched the women and said that the searches were conducted individually in a private setting. They said the Department of Police Accountability had conducted an investigation, and its findings were consistent with the Sheriff’s Office’s initial review. An administrative review process is ongoing.

“The Sheriff’s Office has continued to work collaboratively with the Department on the Status of Women, the Human Rights Commission, the Department of Police Accountability, the Sheriff’s Oversight Board, the Public Defender’s Office, and other community stakeholders to review services and resources available to female inmates and identify opportunities to expand access to supportive programming and city services,” the department said via email.

City attorney spokesperson Jen Kwart said the office would respond to the suit in court once it was filed.

The lawsuit alleges that women continued to be strip-searched following the May 22 incident, after court appearances, medical appointments and family visitation.

One woman alleges that in June 2025, she was subjected to an “orifice search,” and in July, women said that deputies used flashlights to illuminate the interior of their genitalia. Another plaintiff said that in September 2025, male deputies entered her hospital room while she received pelvic examinations and while she was breastfeeding her newborn son, despite medical personnel asking them to leave. According to the suit, the deputies said they were required to maintain a line of sight of the woman per the agency’s policy.

According to the lawsuit, when two women organized others to file tort claims over the policy violations, they were placed in segregation, and that in November, Ibarra threatened to continue the searches if the women continued “disrespecting officers.”

“Despite their fear, despite the retaliation, despite the fact they have to be in the very county jail with the perpetrators who did this, they still are speaking out,” said Elizabeth Bertolino, another of the women’s attorneys.

“This is not going away,” she said. “This is not going to be slipped under the rug. We are not asking for apologies. We are asking for change.”

KQED’s Samantha Kennedy contributed to this report.