Surrey crime tsar says transgender police officers who identify as female should not be allowed to strip search women

• Lisa Townsend, 42, said trans officers shouldn’t strip search female suspects
• The Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner has been embroiled in controversy 
• She has also called for trans prisoners being sent to female prisons to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and offered her backing to JK Rowling

A leading police and crime commissioner who was slammed by campaigners for backing JK Rowling’s stance on women’s rights has suggested transgender police officers should not be allowed to conduct female strip searches.

Lisa Townsend, 42, the Tory crime tsar for Surrey since 2021, blasted national policing guidelines in which she said it was wrong for transgender women within the force to ‘insist on strip-searching’ a female suspect.

‘We need to look at it on both sides. If a fully intact male is arrested and brought into custody to be strip searched and is demanding that he, or if they prefer, she, is identified as a female for that purpose (being strip-searched by a woman), I think most trans people would have a problem with that’, she said. 

Mrs Townsend also said each instance of a trans woman being sent to a female-only prison should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to ensure the safety and rights of vulnerable female prisoners. 

She hit the headlines after offering her support for women’s right to exclude biological males – be they transgender or not- from female-only safe spaces in an interview with the Daily Mail earlier this year.

Surrey’s Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend, 42, blasted national policing guidelines in which she said it was wrong for transgender women within the force to ‘insist on strip-searching’ a female suspect

Mrs Townsend suggested transgender police officers should not be allowed to conduct female strip searches (stock image)

In her latest comments, the police and crime commissioner said she disagreed with the current guidelines issued to police forces.

She said: ‘The current guidelines state that if I was a female and found myself in custody, whilst it would be preferable for me to be strip searched by other female officers we know that’s not always possible. I’m prepared to accept that.

‘Where I have more of an issue is where you have a police officer who has recently identified as a trans woman, particularly if that person hasn’t undergone any form of conversion yet, and is insisting on strip-searching a female.

‘Current National Police Chiefs’ Council guidelines allow for that, and I think that’s wrong.’

Just last week she was forced to reject claims she was transphobic after a Freedom of Information request revealed emails exchanged between herself and the LGB Alliance.

In one message sent to a member of the charity, Mrs Townsend speaks about ‘the issue of males competing in female sports categories’. 

Surrey-based organisation Blossom LGBT claimed the emails showed a ‘pattern of transphobia’.

Mrs Townsend also said each instance of a trans woman being sent to a female-only prison should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to ensure the safety and rights of vulnerable female prisoners 

Mrs Townsend said she had ‘no reason to defend’ herself when it came to communicating with the LGB Alliance, saying the group had been regulated by the Charity Commission since 2021, a decision which is currently being appealed by trans charity Mermaids.

Mrs Townsend added: ‘I know the founders well. They are lovely people who have an awful lot of experience and are anything but a hate group.

‘They’re a group that promotes understanding and compassion and the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

‘If a trans woman wants to use she/her pronouns or traditionally female name I have no problem with that whatsoever.

‘Where somebody is a trans woman, and biologically male, and that has an effect in sports or wanting to use single-sex areas such as domestic abuse refuge or a prison, it is absolutely right the sex of that person is taken into consideration.

‘That’s not misgendering, I absolutely stand by the need to recognise the difference between males and females biologically. Trans people deserve our utmost respect the same as men and women do.’

Mrs Townsend, a married Catholic who has previously marched in support of equal marriage rights, later faced criticism from within her own party after she publicly backed JK Rowling’s stance on women’s rights

Mrs Townsend, a married Catholic who has previously marched in support of equal marriage rights, faced a backlash after she lambasted Stonewall for promoting ‘dangerous transgender ideology that threatens the safety of our women and girls’.

She later faced criticism from within her own party after she publicly backed JK Rowling’s stance in the debate.

Quoting from George Orwell’s 1984, the author tweeted last December: ‘War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength,’ before adding: ‘The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman.’ 

Three men, including local Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, complained. The Surrey police and crime panel’s complaints sub-committee found that Lisa had not been ‘dignified or respectful’ to trans people. It demanded that she explain herself to the men who reported her over the tweet. 

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