A police force is facing accusations of putting “ideology over accuracy” after confirming it typically records the self-declared gender of people in custody rather than their biological sex.
Gender critical campaigners have sharply criticised the practice by Norfolk Constabulary, arguing it distorts crime figures and hampers efforts to protect women and girls.
The force acknowledged that custody records include fields for both birth sex and self-defined gender, but stated that self-identification is used in the majority of cases.
Ermine Amies from the Women’s Rights Network described the situation as “scandalous.”
She told The Telegraph: “This is scandalous…Norfolk Constabulary are actively misleading the public they serve.
“They are valuing ideology over accuracy. How can their data possibly be used reliably to focus on crime prevention and the safety of women and girls? It cannot.
“Our constabulary must revert to recording sex to restore trust, accuracy and compliance with UK law, with self-ID and other data recorded separately as relevant.”
She called on the force to return to recording biological sex as standard practice, suggesting self-identification details could be noted separately where relevant, in order to restore public confidence and ensure compliance with UK legislation.
Norfolk Constabulary has defended the decision
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The policy persists despite a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in April last year that established the terms “woman” and “sex” within the Equality Act 2010 refer specifically to biological sex rather than acquired gender identity.
Under this interpretation, an individual’s legal sex is determined by what was recorded at birth.
A month earlier, Professor Alice Sullivan of University College London had led a review concluding that police forces across the country should gather information based on biological sex rather than self-declared identity.
That review uncovered cases where suspects’ prior convictions had been missed because forces failed to record biological sex consistently.
Helen Joyce called the review ‘a breath of fresh air’
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GB NewsNorfolk Constabulary maintains it keeps alias records, enabling officers to link individuals to earlier cases even when different names have been used.
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at the charity Sex Matters, branded the force’s continued use of the policy as “outrageous.”
She said: “Men commit far more crimes than women, especially violent and sexual crimes, meaning that even a small number of men recorded as female seriously skews crime statistics.
“Some particularly heinous crimes, such as sex crimes against children, are committed almost exclusively by men.
“The result of recording based on ‘gender identity’ is an entirely spurious crime wave of ‘female’ paedophiles and the like.”
The decision was defended
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GETTYShe continued: “It is outrageous that Norfolk Constabulary is continuing with this offensive and misleading practice several years after campaigners first raised the alarm on police recording men as women.”
A spokesman for Norfolk Constabulary said: “On all custody records there is provision to record sex at birth and self-defined sex for detainees.
“In most cases we use self-defined by the detainee. We will always connect an alias on the record even if we record self-defined gender.”