A PSNI policy which allows males to strip search females is branded 'shocking' and 'unacceptable'

The policy was revealed after a question to police from the News Letter, and comes amid a legal challenge to similar rules in another UK police force.

The DUP’s Jonathan Buckley says the force’s stance is “unacceptable” and the Women’s Rights Network Northern Ireland has described the policy as “shocking”.

A former senior police officer has said both the PSNI and Department of Justice need to look at changing the policy.

At the end of last year, women’s rights lobby group Sex Matters announced it was launching legal proceedings against British Transport Police for also allowing males with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) to search females. The group said it is “immoral and unlawful to trick or coerce any woman into being searched by a man, whether or not he has a certificate”.

They also argue that the police policy “puts detainees at risk of sexual harassment and sexual assault” – as well as putting “female officers in a humiliating and dangerous position, as they may be pressured to search trans-identified men”.

The PSNI says its policy is based on guidance by Stormont’s Department of Justice and that only people issued with a GRC are considered not to be their birth sex. In other words, officers cannot self-identify as a different sex.

However, the process by which someone legally changes their sex does not – as many believe – require any medical intervention. To obtain a GRC in Northern Ireland – a legal recognition of a ‘sex change’ for certain purposes – they must be over 18 years old and able to show:

- a gender dysphoria diagnosis

- that they have ‘lived as the opposite sex’ for at least two years

- that they will live ‘permanently in their acquired gender’.

Upper Bann MLA Mr Buckley said “I strongly oppose the PSNI’s position on this matter. The protection of women’s spaces and dignity must remain paramount. Allowing a Gender Recognition Certificate or any other method to override biological reality and permit opposite-sex officers to conduct intimate searches on women is unacceptable.

“Common sense must prevail: a woman is a woman, and a man is a man. Any dilution or blurring of this clear boundary is a dangerous and misguided path for the PSNI, or any police force or government department, to take. Women deserve better safeguards and respect for their privacy and dignity”.

A spokeswoman for the Women's Rights Network Northern Ireland said “It is shocking, that the PSNI, experienced in the far reaching impact that sexual assault and domestic violence has on female victims, believe that the trauma and distress of victims would be alleviated by the possession of a ‘legal certificate’ that no victim would be entitled to ask for.

“It shows a profound lack of insight into trauma and prioritises the needs of serving officers to have their identity validated over that of potentially vulnerable offenders”.

Jon Burrows, a former head of the PSNI’s discipline branch, told the News Letter that “strip searching is one of the most invasive practices a police officer will ever engage in”.

He added: “They are sometimes necessary, but the dignity of the individual is paramount. It is to be welcomed that the PSNI is stating clearly that merely identifying as a gender is in sufficient to allow an officer to conduct a strip search as other UK forces have got into a muddle about these issues.

“However, further clarity would be useful on the operation of strip searches by officers in receipt of a GRC.

“I think for example, a woman subject to a strip search, should be able to individual insist that only an officer born a female carries out or is present at the search. The DoJ and PSNI should consider what policy or legal changes are required to ensure that is the case”.

The News Letter asked the police if male officers who identify as female (with or without a gender recognition certificate) are permitted to conduct strip searches or any other intimate searches on females.

A PSNI spokesperson said: “The Police Service of Northern Ireland conduct strip searches in accordance with the Annex A of Code C of the Police and Criminal Evidence Codes of Practice (PACE), issued by the Department for Justice for Northern Ireland.

“Under Annex A of Code C only persons of the same gender as the person being searched, may conduct or be present during a strip search. Under the Codes a person remains their gender assigned at birth unless the person has been issued with a Gender Recognition Certificate”.