Switzerland. Geneva. A police officer is strip searching a prisoner in a cell at the Paquis police station. The man was arrested while selling drugs in the streets. The inmate is an arab man from the Maghreb area. A strip search is a practice of searching a person for weapons or other contraband suspected of being hidden on their body or inside their clothing by requiring the person to remove some or all of his clothing. The strip search is a mandatory procedure which requires legal authority. It is done by a police officer once a person is arrested and locked in a cell. A police station or station house is a building which serves for police officers. The building contains temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms. 19.03.12 © 2012 Didier Ruef