Transgender police allowed to strip-search women under new guidance
Transgender police officers are permitted to strip-search women, new guidance shared by the British Transport Police has revealed.
The rules have outlined that male-born members of staff who identify as female can conduct intimate searches of women.
The only requirement is that the officers can provide a gender recognition certificate.
Guidance supplied by the BTP reads: “British Transport Police recognises the status of transgender and non-binary detainees/staff from the moment they permanently identify in that gender with or without a GRC.
“This means that even when a person has not legally changed their sex, we should continue to use the correct pronouns and recognise the person’s gender.
“BTP officers/staff will only search persons of the same sex as either their birth certificate or GRC.”
Similar rules outlined in national policing guidance were temporarily suspended when the Conservatives flagged concerns surrounding women’s safety.
At the start of the year, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) removed similar guidance which allowed biological males who identified as females to conduct intimate searches of women.
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By that time, most police forces had started abiding by the newly-issued guidance up and down the nation, the Women’s Rights Network found.
Retired police superintendent and national policing lead for the Women’s Rights Network Cathy Larkman has called the guidance “state-sanctioned sexual assault”.
Responding to the news, Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe took to Twitter, echoing Larkman’s thoughts.
He said: “I have written to the Minister this morning, asking to take appropriate steps to ensure that women are not strip-searched by biological men. We must put an end to this madness, and prioritise the safety of women and girls. Say NO to state-sanctioned sexual assault.”
Women’s rights campaigners contacted BTP’s chief constable yesterday, with CEO of human rights charity Sex Matters Maya Forstater saying that the guidance was a “shocking breach of human rights”.
She said: “Allowing male British Transport Police officers with gender recognition certificates stating their ‘acquired gender’ as female to strip-search women is a shocking breach of human rights. States have an absolute duty to protect citizens from degrading and inhuman treatment.
“Forcing a woman to strip naked and bend over in front of someone she can see perfectly well is a man is certainly degrading.”
A BTP spokesman said: “Who British Transport Police transgender colleagues may search is determined by an interaction between the legal framework of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984), Code of Practice on the Exercise by Constables of Powers of Stop and Search of the Person in Scotland 2017, and the Equality Act (2010), with the correct application of occupational requirement, and not limited to the provisions of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) (2004).
“Therefore, an officer may only search as the sex indicated on their birth certificate or listed on their gender recognition certificate, whichever is more recent when enacting a statutory power of search under compulsion.
“A person being searched can object to being searched by any officer; this officer will be replaced by another member of the team to conduct the search in their place. This is regularly done in practice for many reasons, such as a way to de-escalate conflict.”