Transgender police officers should not be allowed to conduct female strip searches, Surrey’s Conservative police and crime commissioner has said.
Lisa Townsend criticised national policing guidelines and said she would be concerned if a pre-surgery transgender female officer was “insisting on strip searching” women.
Speaking to Surrey Live she said that while guidelines stated that it was preferable for women in custody to be strip searched by other female officers, that was not always possible. She said: “I’m prepared to accept that. Where I have more of an issue is where you have a police officer who has recently identified as a trans woman, particularly if that person hasn’t undergone any form of conversion yet, and is insisting on strip searching a female.
“Current National Police Chiefs’ Council [NPCC] guidelines allow for that, I think that’s wrong. We need to look at it on both sides. If a fully intact male is arrested and brought into custody to be strip searched and is demanding that he, or if they prefer, she, is identified as a female for that purpose [being strip-searched by a woman] I think most trans people would have a problem with that.”
Under NPCC guidelines a case-by-case approach is taken when it comes to a search being carried out by a transgender officer. Officers are regularly replaced by colleagues when a person objects to being searched by them, regardless of the reason for objection.
Townsend said later: “I believe that in order to say that policing truly operates by consent we must ensure that forces all over the country are diverse and represent our diverse populations, including trans men and women. I also believe that trans women are male and that it will not always be appropriate for a female suspect in custody to be intimately searched by a male, particularly if that male has only recently identified as a trans woman and has not yet taken any steps to transition into their new gender. A woman in custody may be vulnerable, has not been tried or convicted of any crime, and may herself be a victim of trauma or abuse. It is not in anyone’s interest to potentially compound this vulnerability by having someone of the opposite sex carry out an intimate search.”
An NPCC spokesman said: “All searches are carried out in line with the officer or staff members training and legal authority, taking into account our responsibilities under both the Equalities Act 2010 and Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.”
Wow they found a new anti-trans wedge issue, so presumably we’ll be seeing this parroted endlessly as another one of the “legitimate concerns” certain people have about transgender people.
> Speaking to Surrey Live she said that while guidelines stated that it was preferable for women in custody to be strip searched by other female officers, that was not always possible. She said: “I’m prepared to accept that. Where I have more of an issue is where you have a police officer who has recently identified as a trans woman, particularly if that person hasn’t undergone any form of conversion yet, and is insisting on strip searching a female.
This surprises me.
Is it really so difficult to find a female officer to perform a strip search on a female prisoner?
A female suspect wanting a female police officer to perform a strip search is a very reasonable request. It’s already an intimate and embarrassing situation to be in when an officer of the same sex is doing it.
Seems about right really, it’s about the dignity of the person arrested, not the police officer.
And also a non issue, there are sod all trans coppers probably.
Is this even really an issue? How many trans police officers are there in Britain?
“said she would be concerned if a pre surgery trans officer was insisting on strip searching women”
There’s a few things to unpack there. Firstly, ‘pre surgery’ specifically. So is she implying after they’ve transitioned this is okay? Not picking sides I just want to know what she meant.
Also… I’d be worried if any officer was ‘insisting’ on strip searching women. Has this case ever come up? Articles not great on providing context around this.
>”I also believe that trans women are male and that it will not always be appropriate for a female suspect in custody to be intimately searched by a male, particularly if that male has only recently identified as a trans woman and has not yet taken any steps to transition into their new gender.”
Why are the most conservative people the first ones to overtly sexualise anything, and view everyone else through the lense of criminals and perverts? And surely as PCC being interviewed in an official capacity, she shouldn’t be stating her personal opinion on the identification of Trans Women and her beliefs surrounding them, unless we are to believe that this is the official position of Surrey Police?
I mean the idea that someone would join the police(or be a current member), go through the whole process then identify as trans, again go through what I imagine to be not the easiest ride, all on the *off chance* they could strip search a woman because they’re a sexual deviant seems remarkably low.
I mean there’s a lot of hoops to jump through there, doesn’t seem like the easiest route a pervert would take. Feels more like the “all trans men are just trying to rape women” bigotry
Likewise the term ‘insisted’ is interesting as I’d imagine regardless of orientation or gender, if you had one officer who repeatedly insisted on strip searching people, they should probably be investigated anyway.
That said, I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable that a woman might not feel comfortable having a person with male genital strip search them, especially if they have past trauma.
Why do they raise this issue when the plethora of sexism (and racism, homophobia etc.) that has come out from police WhatsApp messages been genuinely documented and has tangible evidence of being an existing problem?
And should homophobes get to demand they are searched only by straight police officers? Should racists get to demand they are searched only by police officers of certain skin colours?
Surely it should be handled on a case-by-case basis, with the searcher chosen from whoever’s on duty that the searchee is comfortable with, rather than a lazy knee-jerk blanket “No trans” policy?
Not every trans woman is the butch brute with a deep voice the media perceive them to be, while a small but increasing proportion of the cohort will be those who transitioned in adolescence, so won’t have experienced a male puberty.
13 comments
Transgender police officers should not be allowed to conduct female strip searches, Surrey’s Conservative police and crime commissioner has said.
Lisa Townsend criticised national policing guidelines and said she would be concerned if a pre-surgery transgender female officer was “insisting on strip searching” women.
Speaking to Surrey Live she said that while guidelines stated that it was preferable for women in custody to be strip searched by other female officers, that was not always possible. She said: “I’m prepared to accept that. Where I have more of an issue is where you have a police officer who has recently identified as a trans woman, particularly if that person hasn’t undergone any form of conversion yet, and is insisting on strip searching a female.
“Current National Police Chiefs’ Council [NPCC] guidelines allow for that, I think that’s wrong. We need to look at it on both sides. If a fully intact male is arrested and brought into custody to be strip searched and is demanding that he, or if they prefer, she, is identified as a female for that purpose [being strip-searched by a woman] I think most trans people would have a problem with that.”
Under NPCC guidelines a case-by-case approach is taken when it comes to a search being carried out by a transgender officer. Officers are regularly replaced by colleagues when a person objects to being searched by them, regardless of the reason for objection.
Townsend said later: “I believe that in order to say that policing truly operates by consent we must ensure that forces all over the country are diverse and represent our diverse populations, including trans men and women. I also believe that trans women are male and that it will not always be appropriate for a female suspect in custody to be intimately searched by a male, particularly if that male has only recently identified as a trans woman and has not yet taken any steps to transition into their new gender. A woman in custody may be vulnerable, has not been tried or convicted of any crime, and may herself be a victim of trauma or abuse. It is not in anyone’s interest to potentially compound this vulnerability by having someone of the opposite sex carry out an intimate search.”
An NPCC spokesman said: “All searches are carried out in line with the officer or staff members training and legal authority, taking into account our responsibilities under both the Equalities Act 2010 and Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.”
Wow they found a new anti-trans wedge issue, so presumably we’ll be seeing this parroted endlessly as another one of the “legitimate concerns” certain people have about transgender people.
> Speaking to Surrey Live she said that while guidelines stated that it was preferable for women in custody to be strip searched by other female officers, that was not always possible. She said: “I’m prepared to accept that. Where I have more of an issue is where you have a police officer who has recently identified as a trans woman, particularly if that person hasn’t undergone any form of conversion yet, and is insisting on strip searching a female.
This surprises me.
Is it really so difficult to find a female officer to perform a strip search on a female prisoner?
A female suspect wanting a female police officer to perform a strip search is a very reasonable request. It’s already an intimate and embarrassing situation to be in when an officer of the same sex is doing it.
Seems about right really, it’s about the dignity of the person arrested, not the police officer.
And also a non issue, there are sod all trans coppers probably.
Is this even really an issue? How many trans police officers are there in Britain?
“said she would be concerned if a pre surgery trans officer was insisting on strip searching women”
There’s a few things to unpack there. Firstly, ‘pre surgery’ specifically. So is she implying after they’ve transitioned this is okay? Not picking sides I just want to know what she meant.
Also… I’d be worried if any officer was ‘insisting’ on strip searching women. Has this case ever come up? Articles not great on providing context around this.
>”I also believe that trans women are male and that it will not always be appropriate for a female suspect in custody to be intimately searched by a male, particularly if that male has only recently identified as a trans woman and has not yet taken any steps to transition into their new gender.”
Why are the most conservative people the first ones to overtly sexualise anything, and view everyone else through the lense of criminals and perverts? And surely as PCC being interviewed in an official capacity, she shouldn’t be stating her personal opinion on the identification of Trans Women and her beliefs surrounding them, unless we are to believe that this is the official position of Surrey Police?
I mean the idea that someone would join the police(or be a current member), go through the whole process then identify as trans, again go through what I imagine to be not the easiest ride, all on the *off chance* they could strip search a woman because they’re a sexual deviant seems remarkably low.
I mean there’s a lot of hoops to jump through there, doesn’t seem like the easiest route a pervert would take. Feels more like the “all trans men are just trying to rape women” bigotry
Likewise the term ‘insisted’ is interesting as I’d imagine regardless of orientation or gender, if you had one officer who repeatedly insisted on strip searching people, they should probably be investigated anyway.
That said, I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable that a woman might not feel comfortable having a person with male genital strip search them, especially if they have past trauma.
Why do they raise this issue when the plethora of sexism (and racism, homophobia etc.) that has come out from police WhatsApp messages been genuinely documented and has tangible evidence of being an existing problem?
And should homophobes get to demand they are searched only by straight police officers? Should racists get to demand they are searched only by police officers of certain skin colours?
Surely it should be handled on a case-by-case basis, with the searcher chosen from whoever’s on duty that the searchee is comfortable with, rather than a lazy knee-jerk blanket “No trans” policy?
Not every trans woman is the butch brute with a deep voice the media perceive them to be, while a small but increasing proportion of the cohort will be those who transitioned in adolescence, so won’t have experienced a male puberty.
Comments restricted lmao
People can’t just be nice and accepting can they?