Trans detainees can request officers of a different sex for searches (Scotland)

[Igneococcus]

This might be the most bonkers thing to come out of Scotland yet.
"Transgender detainees undergoing police searches will be allowed to ask for officers of different sexes to frisk their top and bottom halves, under new guidelines."

https://www.thetimes.com/article/ac912fac-0038-4d68-80a9-b3dce4807ca6?shareToken=8d1563cd136a6688bad250e571282b97

😆

Will police officers in Scotland have a say in this or will they have to bow down to the Word of the Special Sacred Caste?

It is a ridiculously complicated situation and often searches of this kind are under time pressure because there's a suspicion of internal drugs and the detainee may be at risk. It is going to tie up a lot of time, effort, people and create a performance and a half, and it's not like we have police standing around idle who can play this game.

It's a half step in a better direction in that it moves away from the fixed belief of based on declared gender and different to rules for all others, and sets in policy that the consent of the officers involved is necessary and cannot be compelled. (I'm sure that will be tested, and that it won't be male officers coming under pressure.)

But I'm reminded of the bit from FWS's comment somewhere about when you decide to make extensive changes to your body for your own reasons you have to take some responsibility for that, and accept there are going to be some difficulties attached to it.

Prison policies are a guddle iirc, but also have been 'under review' for ages and ages

Some years back there was audio recording from the US of a clearly male officer saying he identified as female when searching a female protester. And laughing. Don't know if anyone remembers.

I’m inclined to agree.

Having seen the NHS mental health trust policies which date from some years ago now, I would actually be surprised if this was new policy. I would bet it has been like this for some time (at least this bit of it - the wording is so similar to the NHS one).

SPS searches 'individualised'. So, there isn't a clear policy

https://www.sps.gov.uk/about-us/our-latest-news/policy-management-transgender-people-custody

Yep

There were a couple of instances.
There was a video at a protest of an over garment patdown in a public place being recorded by multiple people (likely including his and other officers body cams). A woman in the recording group objected on the basis of the detained being a woman. The male officer was being ironic as TWAW was a theme of the anti-police protests.

And if memory serves it was In a area where ongoing nightly "mainly peaceful protesting" was taking place?

Yes, that all sounds about right, AnSolas.

It’s been in place for a while that people in custody can ask for someone of the same gender to search them, but staff can also refuse.

When it comes to strip searching which is usually led by custody staff and not police officers (though they’d be there in some capacity), I’d imagine that if there was a stand still (e.g. a female member of staff/officer refusing to strip search a trans woman) they would revert to the same practice when a custody refuses a strip search which is their right to do and they’d remain on constant observations.

You noticed it too, did you? It’s what makes the trans rights movement very much appear to be a men’s rights movement. Of course, the (often neuro-diverse) young women who identify as men help to lend their cause legitimacy, but the men don’t really care about them.

Presumably a non-trans identifying male could also ask to be searched by the opposite sex. if not I fail to see how this special privilege could be justified. And if that is the case it should have been spelled out in the article as it underlines the absurdity.

Now even the Russian are laughing at us, thanks to police Scotland and the SNP

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/russian-regime-mocks-snp-scotlands-35487811?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar