Female suspects can be strip-searched by police officers who were born male but identify as women – and could be accused of a hate crime if they object, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
New guidelines issued to forces around the country state: ‘Chief Officers are advised to recognise the status of Transgender colleagues from the moment they transition, considered to be, the point at which they present in the gender with which they identify.
‘Thus, once a Transgender colleague has transitioned, they will search persons of the same gender as their own lived gender.’
