Tuesday 3rd July 2001

Two police forces employ transsexuals, tribunal told

Two police forces, Essex and North Yorkshire, are currently employing transsexual officers, a tribunal was told.

The claim was made at an employment appeal where West Yorkshire police are trying to overturn an earlier ruling in favour of a woman who has been trying for five years to join the force.

Stephanie Harrison, representing the woman in her 30s, known only as A, said: “Since the decision of the employment tribunal, police forces are actively recruiting transsexuals.”

She urged the three member Employment Appeal Tribunal, sitting in London and presided over by Mr Justice Lindsay, to look at the new evidence and take it into account.

Miss Harrison said: “As far as we know, there were no police forces that were recruiting transsexuals before the decision of the employment tribunal.

“We say that it is relevant because it contradicts in a concrete way the assertions made by this particular police force that they cannot make these accommodations.

“Police forces in practice have now been doing that.

“Essex and North Yorkshire are the two forces that have transsexual officers at the moment.”

West Yorkshire police is seeking an authoritative ruling from the tribunal as to whether A is legally still a man, which it says would present an “insuperable obstacle” to her carrying out searches involving more than removal of a female suspect’s outer garments.

Miss Harrison said of the transsexual recruits in the other forces: “They are accommodated within the police forces without carrying out searches, that’s our information.”

West Yorkshire’s counsel David Bean QC, asked for his initial reaction to the new evidence, said: “They (the results of the research) are of no value … All they tell you is that two of the 43 forces in the country employ one transsexual, possibly more … Most haven’t replied.”

Story filed: 18:38 Tuesday 3rd July 2001

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