I'm confused, The met and searches

[IdentifyingAsAPrincess]

www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/met-police-review-uniform-policy-23260398 Please divert me if there's already a thread on this, but how is this supposed to work alongside the belief that sex is real being a legally held one? Can a female detainee alert the officer that she is gender critical and as such that makes a male person searching her a common or garden sexual offender?

@DontBuyANewMumCashmere given there were complaints regarding the stab vests until at least 2019, it is reassuring to hear that at least the Police have addressed the issue now, after 20 years of complaints.

Well it must be different in different forces but in 2012 at least one force had different sex stab vests.
I don't remember when I signed up whether another force had M/F stab vests. I thought so but can't be sure. That was in 2006.

@Waitwhat23

It's a really weird article. The paragraph about searches in custody is incongruous with the rest of the information given. It talks about uniforms being more 'inclusive' and training being given to tackle homophobia etc and then almost nonchalantly talks about searches in custody being conducted by males and no further information or discussion. It's almost as though the feelings and rights of the women being searched don't matter. But we know that.

Did anyone else find this rather troubling?

'But he noted that police misconduct regulations aren’t in the force’s gift: “We do not have control over them.” Officers can only be sacked for gross misconduct, a fact which allowed nine of 14 officers investigated by the IOPC to keep their jobs'

It may just be that it's a badly written article. It seems that the interview with CI Halton-Woodward was focused on recruitment of LGBT officers. He was speaking in relation to a particular inquiry that revealed a lot of homophobia and institutionally problematic attitudes to/ignorance of the LGBT community. The bit about not being able to sack most of the officers who were investigated sounded like regret that standards aren't higher in relation to discriminatory language and behaviour so officers who showed homophobic attitudes were allowed to remain in the force. We've seen similar concern on this board over the way sexist comments by police officers have not resulted in firings.

Also, his quote about about searches doesn't say that trans women could end up searching female arrestees, it's the reporter that's added that bit in. Halton-Woodward only says they are reviewing searches to “better reflect the officer’s gender identity”. Which could just mean that they won't require an officer who is a trans to search someone who is male or male identified.

However, IIRC, we have already had a force state they will go by officer's gender identity not sex when it comes to body searches, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was what they were considering. It's just impossible to know what from the reporting.

"The Met Police are reviewing their uniform policy amid concerns some officers feel obliged to wear uniforms that do not match their gender identity. Currently, the uniforms officers wear are at a manager's discretion, meaning that some trans or non-binary officers may feel obliged to ‘come out’ to management when picking their kit."

I'm confused. Surely wearing the opposite sex 'outs' them, not asking their manager?

I'm confused. Surely wearing the opposite sex 'outs' them, not asking their manager?

See, there you go, tra la la ing on in your happy clappy gender critical manner.

Fuck off expecting logic, sense, coherence. You GC bigot, you!