Lisa Townsend PCC says officers who identify as female should not be allowed to strip search women

[ResisterRex]

In the Mail, and Times:

Surrey crime tsar says transgender police officers who identify as female should not be allowed to strip search women
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11477097/Surrey-crime-tsar-says-trans-cops-identify-female-not-allowed-strip-search-women.html

"Lisa Townsend, 42, the Tory crime tsar for Surrey since 2021, blasted national policing guidelines in which she said it was wrong for transgender women within the force to 'insist on strip-searching' a female suspect.

'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', she said.
Mrs Townsend also said each instance of a trans woman being sent to a female-only prison should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to ensure the safety and rights of vulnerable female prisoners."

Trans police officers shouldn’t strip-search women, says PCC

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bf3366bc-6f59-11ed-a188-d2cb771901d6?shareToken=9e44f06af4d80e50104b474344ba2e62

"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.”
...

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.”"

“while guidelines stated that it was preferable for women in custody to be strip searched by other female officers, that was not always possible.”
Is it just me who didn’t realise that male officers (non-trans) strip searching women was allowed?

It's not. Guidelines can guideline all they like but this is what the law says:

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/section/54

The constable carrying out a search shall be of the same sex as the person searched.

It does go on, It's happened to me

She sounds eminently sensible. Good for her. Every PCC and CC in the country should agree with these views.

if that person hasn’t undergone any form of conversion yet

Odd language. They're transwomen, not cybermen.

I don't care if a tranwomen has had surgery or taken hormones or not I still don't want them or any other male being allowed to strip search me, my daughter or any other female

Quite. It's good she's attempting to solve some issues, but it needs to be unequivocal.

No man is a woman. They don't edge closer to changing sex the longer they say they are. Neither do they become less sexist, or less insistent that women validate them.

She's still attempting to mop up the fall out, rather than tackle the underlying premise.

I can't even believe it needs saying and is a reportable thing to say. What the hell happened to the world!

She sounds eminently sensible

She has incurred the wrath of the Surrey wing of the TRA many times, so yes

I've known a good many people in my time who had had the surgery (transexuals they used to be called but don't think that's allowed now 🤷) and Tbh I can't imagine any of them would have wanted to strip search females. This seems to be from the 'new' trans brigade.

The new trans people don't seem to think you need any surgery or modifications to be trans apparently.

How can TRAs argue against this? A TW insisting on doing an intimate search on a woman has to have some dodgy motives. Doing it to validate their own "identity" as the expense of a potentially vulnerable traumatised woman is not OK. There can be no good motive for this.

@jlpartnerrs I’m sorry that happened to you.

Lisa sounds like a very sensible woman of sound mind.

As PP said, I can't believe it has become remarkable to state the obvious.

I think the bigger issue here is sometimes new and inexperienced female officers being forced to search a transgender, fully intact male, because they state they're female. It has caused issues in the past and still will. The world has gone mad.
Some male officers have had to be present during female strip searches due to the violent nature of some females, and the lack of female officers to safely conduct the search without any contingency nearby.

It's the use of the word "insist" that disturbs me. Some random PC can swan up and force colleagues and superiors to enable that. Despite the rights of the person being searched. Syntax awkward due to avoiding flipping obvious pronouns.

Absolutely. I wish there were a Lisa in charge of every police force, the Met, the fire brigade - every institution, actually. She’s been great for a while now at speaking out.

I understand she is attempting to come across as moderate but no!

No male should be strip searching females, regardless of their operational* status.

(read that * anyway you like)

Lisa is doing a great job,

She is, and I'm not knocking it. I've sent her a thank you card before now. And I know she gets it in the neck from transactivists.

In my opinion, though, there is no case-by-case solution to any of this. Nor should any of it be conditional upon surgery, or longevity. Or any criteria supplied by the man in question.

I'm sure she thinks that way, too, and is just mindful of how she's coming across.