UK: Transgender Police Can Strip-Search Women, 'Hate Incident' If They Complain

[G.L.R.]

UK: Transgender Police Can Strip-Search Women, 'Hate Incident' If They Complain

New guidance from the UK's police chief association has said that transgender officers born as male must be allowed to strip-search women, and could result in a non-crime hate incident if the women complain.

The guidelines, issued by the National Police Chief's Council, were first presented in December last year... "Chief Officers are advised to recognize the status of Transgender colleagues from the moment they transition, considered to be, the point at which they present in the gender with which they identify," they note. "Thus, once a transgender colleague has transitioned, they will search persons of the same gender as their own lived gender." While the guidance does say that it may be "advisable" for another police officer to strip-search the detainee if they object, the refusal could be recorded as a "non-crime hate incident" if their refusal is "based on discriminatory views," such as believing that transgender women are not real women... Superintendent Cathy Larkman, who recently retired after over 30 years service in the police, told the Mail on Sunday that when she discovered the guidelines, she was left "absolutely gobsmacked," and that the more she read it, the more shocked she was. "This is a devastating blow to women's trust in the police," Larkman argued. "Women are not even an afterthought in this guidance; they are completely non-existent.

In response, a spokesman for the NPCC said that all searches are dealt with "on a case-by-case basis after consideration by a custody sergeant based on the response of the detainee," and that when conducting searches they take into account their "responsibilities" resulting from the Equalities Act 2010, which made transgenderism a protected characteristic. The protection of the "rights" of transgender individuals in opposition to biological women has faced immense scrutiny in recent weeks in the UK.

UK: Transgender Police Can Strip-Search Women, 'Hate Incident' If They Complain - Valiant News