Transsexual wins WPc job plea (Daily Telegraph)

Tuesday
23 March 1999
Issue 1397

AN ATTEMPT by a transsexual to become a policewoman has been backed by an industrial tribunal.

She applied to the West Yorkshire force in 1997, a year after undergoing a sex-change operation which she made known from the outset.  Gregory Wilkinson, Assistant Chief Constable, initially allowed the application to proceed, but 14 months into the recruitment process it was stopped on legal advice.

The force was told problems could arise in the event of body searches, which are required to be conducted by an officer of the same sex as the suspect.  The woman is still registered as a male on her birth certificate.  She took the case to tribunal in February.  It has now ruled that the risk of a case being thrown out of court because a search was conducted by a transsexual was negligible.

The woman passed all recruitment tests she took.  She is still to contact the force about the prospect of finishing her training.  A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “We will study the findings and the implications for the force.”

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