Fury as police chiefs fail to stop transgender officers – who were born male but identify as female – being permitted to strip-search women

Police chiefs are under fire for failing to stop transgender officers being allowed to strip-search women.

After an outcry earlier this year, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) withdrew guidance permitting biological males identifying as female to intimately search women.

It said it was launching a ‘thorough’ review of the rules, while Home Office ministers said they shared campaigners’ ‘profound concerns’ that forces were breaking the law and risking safety.

But activists fear the NPCC is ignoring them and that new guidance will still allow transgender officers to strip-search women.

At a consultation last week, police allegedly referenced a claim that there are ’72 recognised genders’ and said a trans activist lawyer is working on the review. The NPCC chairman Gavin Stephens is now facing calls for the entire process to be scrapped and restarted with a new adviser.

In a letter seen by the Mail, the activists said: ‘This review is not fit for purpose. We call on you to stop it now, and restart it only after making a clear statement that no male officer or staff member (however they identify, and whether or not they possess a gender-recognition certificate) may search a female detainee beyond removal of jacket, outer coat and gloves, or head and footwear.’

The campaigners – Maya Forstater of Sex Matters, Heather Binning of the Women’s Rights Network, Kate Barker of the LGB Alliance and retired police officer Cathy Larkman – say they had hoped last Tuesday’s meeting would acknowledge that the old guidance was ‘unlawful and abusive’. 

But they say the NPCC staff they met took a ‘neutral stance’ over whether trans women should be allowed to search female detainees.

‘Those attending for the NPCC did not accept that it is just as inappropriate, humiliating and degrading for a woman to be searched by a male officer who calls himself a “trans woman” as for her to be searched by any other male officer.’ 

The activists added: ‘During the meeting, we were told that a participant in another session had said there were ’72 recognised genders’.’

The campaigners are also angry their consultation responses are to be given to trans activist barrister Robin Moira White, who has previously branded equalities minister Kemi Badenoch and Equality and Human Rights Commission chairman Baroness Falkner ‘evil’.

An NPCC spokesman said last night that the review of the guidance on custody searches carried out by transgender staff ‘includes engagement with colleagues across policing and partner organisations, community groups and associations. The review is ongoing, and no decisions have yet been made’.