Male police officers who identify as female will be able to conduct strip searches on women, under new proposals being considered by the police.
The new guidance for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) is due to be considered this month, before becoming official policy. It states that an officer who holds a gender recognition certificate can strip search someone of the opposite biological sex.
Similar proposals were withdrawn last year and subjected to a review after the previous government raised the issue of women’s safety.
Right to refuse
The guidance also states: “It is important that employers treat people in accordance with their lived gender identity, whether or not they have a gender recognition certificate.”
It said that people can request a different officer to conduct the strip search, but notes: “Consideration should also be given to the manner in which the detainee objects to the search and any prejudicial language should be dealt with positively.”
The NPCC did not expand on what “dealt with positively” meant. However, the previous proposals stated: “If the refusal is based on discriminatory views, consideration should be given for the incident to be recorded as a non-crime hate incident unless the circumstances amount to a recordable crime.”
‘Harmful to women’
National policing lead for the Women’s Rights Network, Cathy Larkman, said: “The chief constables of the UK need to bear in mind that their role as police officers is to protect the public and enforce the law. It is not to act as agents of radical social change, and to attempt to stretch and even breach the law, particularly when this harms the rights of women and girls”.
The police have forgotten about women, in their pursuit of ideology
The retired police superintendent continued: “Police leaders make a lot of noise about tackling violence against women and girls. Their words are hollow ones, as they are determined to subject women to opposite sex strip-searching despite all our objections.”
She concluded: “The police have forgotten about women, in their pursuit of ideology. They have become fanatics.”
‘Breach of rights’
Maya Forstater, Chief Executive of women’s rights group Sex Matters, commented: “The natural reaction to this new guidance on trans officers searching is: what can the NPCC possibly be thinking?”
She explained: “Paying £5 for a piece of paper from the Government doesn’t turn a male police officer into a female one, any more than wearing a dress or putting on lipstick would. We regard this guidance as a serious breach of the fundamental rights of female detainees.”
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