Police Scotland say transgender suspects have the right to ask for a male officer to search one half of their body and a female officer to search the other half.

[lechiffre55]

They really can't tell their arse from their elbow any more.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14850339/Police-Scotland-transgender-suspects-male-female-officers-search.html

My arse is actually male and my elbows are female, so this works out fine if do any crimes.

Thinks ... pantomime horse?

or a Pushmi Pullyu ... some kind of fictional creature anyway that has two halves

Surely this is a joke?

It's not very funny. It's stupid and potentially risky for female officers.

What is happening?! It's like late night TV comedy in the 1990s or Kenny Everett!

Just when you thought this stuff couldn't get any more ridiculous

As a female police officer this wouldn’t particularly bother me. I’ve searched trans women in the past. I don’t think of all the things that I would be at risk of that this would rate very highly on the danger scale ( I’d be in a police station ). Any officer with concerns would probably not be made to do it unless they were the only female officer for miles. ( and actually I’m pretty suspicious of anyone using concern for female police officers as the reason for opposing this guidance. Typically posters here are pretty critical of police so I’m doubtful anyone has any genuine concerns for my safety ). And just as an aside I am a member of the Mets Gender Critical network.

You are suspicious of anyone voicing concern for female police officers who might be exposed to risk from male suspects as a result of this guidance? Mmmkay.

FFS

This is stupid. Both halves are the same sex.

Check out the past threads on Mumsnet about this - the concern has always been for the females in such scenarios, ie. the females being searched and the females enacting the searches as part of their duties.

FWR can absolutely be critical of police responses and policies, especially when the actions are targeted against women and by transgender offenders appear to be given preferential treatment (ie TRAs given a free pass despite being violent, obscene and threatening, whereas women being interviewed/warned, arrested and charged for ribbons, stickers and being “untoward about paedophiles). This doesn’t change the concern we have for women being placed in a position where they have to search a biological male who insists they are a woman.

To me, to you.

Absolutely.

Who searches:
TIM who has had no surgical intervention.
TIM who has had facial feminisation surgery only?
TIM who has had breast implants but retains male genitalia?
TIM who has moobs from incorrect sex hormones, but retains male genitalia?
TIM who has had both breast surgery and plastic surgery to their genitals?
TIM who have retained their penis and had a vaginoplasty?
NB who has had a mastectomy?
NB or gender fluid (natal) female?
NB or gender fluid (natal) male.

Plus, which half of the body does a female have to search on a TIM? L or R, top or bottom?

Well unless a person has been searched before we’re not going to know what we’re getting. There’s no real process for asking in custody so you’re working on visual cues I suppose. If a trans woman was “passing” well enough now they would be searched by female officers because we wouldn’t know. ( and I don’t know what post op genitals looks like so I’m not entirely sure what we would know after)

But that’s not following the SC guidance. What a bunch of captured twats.

When the Guardian magazine did that double-page spread of images of women's vulvas, even a very brief glance before moving on made it obvious which one wasn't actually a vulva and was not a woman's.

@Divebar2021 you are making that common mistake of assuming that something which doesn’t seem risky to you is acceptable to all other women.

I understand practicalities will have to be addressed, but as a principle men should not be searched by women, and women should not be intimately searched by men.

There are reasons for that principle. It should apply to everyone- and to both halves of one body.

They did what now? 🤨

They did indeed. A startling sight with one's mid-morning tea.

In hindsight, it was part of the campaign. Not sure when it was - ten years ago, six, more?

Was there a penis edition too?

Not that I saw, much I might have switched weekend papers, or dropped them (reduced income) or stopped buying them altogether (Covid).

Or maybe someone pointed out to the picture editor that showing a clear photo of obvious surgical damage alongside a lot of varied but normal body parts might not gain as many supporters as they imagined.

If Trans suspects have 'the right' to make that request, do the police have 'the right' to reply 'away out of that you eejit' - or whatever the Scots equivalent is.

Scotland! You beauty!

Bring it all to a head, will you please? I've got my popcorn ready.

Hic sunt dracones total effing nutjobs.

I'm relieved that my Dad (a lifelong Guardian reader) didn't have to see that. The Guardian would have got a stinker of a letter from him. I recall his reaction when he was sent an unsolicited pornographic novel in the post (presumably some acquaintance's idea of a joke). The company that sent it got a snorter of a letter in response; I believe he went as far as to use the words "how dare you". I have never seen him so livid!

Women are critical/untrusting of police due to experience, newsworthy incidents of bad police officers, and bonkers policies like this one. The concern is women’s safety, including yours. I’m glad that you feel unthreatened and might be saying that to prove (to yourself? Your sexist colleagues? ) that you’re worthy of doing your job but you shouldn’t be put in that situation in the first place.