We recommend police officers and staff decline to conduct any kind of search (above the removal of JOG) on a member of the opposite sex in everyone's interests.

If the police can't get it right then the rest of the chain won't either, and women at every stage, some very vulnerable, will pay the price.

It sets the tone for the rest of the criminal justice system and is in large part how we end up with men being housed in the women's prison estate.

Policing is at the beginning of this pipeline. Using female pronouns for males who have committed serious sex offences, having females search them, recording their crimes as having been committed by a woman, etc, are not neutral actions.

Conducting such a search once sets a precedent for the female involved, but also for others within the same employment and gives everyone the impression that such a policy is acceptable. It isn't.

Female staff and officers being expected to search males is unacceptable and, in many cases, unlawful. It is unpleasant and degrading for the female having to do it which is compounded by the female having felt pressure to do it by a supervisor or the organisation she works for.