Women’s rights campaigners have slammed a police force for “making it harder” to track down a wanted “female” who is actually a biological male.
Surrey Police issued a public appeal for help finding a 49-year-old “woman” named Skyla Stone.
The appeal read: “We are appealing for the public’s help in finding wanted woman Skyla Stone.
“She is described as a white, with brown hair and blue/green eyes and has links to Guildford.”
After the backlash, they updated the description to refer to Stone as a “transgender woman”, but continued to use the pronoun “she”.
The force was reproached by its own police and crime commissioner, Lisa Townsend.
She said: “I will be making it clear to the force that however well-intentioned this may have been, it is clear to everyone that this is a male, however they choose to identify.”
The Women’s Rights Network (WRN) claimed the force was potentially putting “the public at risk” by making it more difficult for Stone to be located.
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Speaking to The Telegraph, Heather Binning of the WRN said Surrey Police has risked “seriously misleading the public and possibly putting people in danger”.
She added: “It’s not the first time our police forces have put out such misleading messages.”
This move follows a report from the independent Sullivan review, which stated that police forces should be required to record an individual's biological sex instead of solely relying on their self-declared gender identity.
Critics have argued allowing public bodies to remove sex from statistical records undermines research on women’s issues and makes it harder for researchers to identify trends in areas such as rape cases, medical trials, and gender pay gaps.
Helen Joyce, of the organisation Sex Matters said: “The day after the publication of the Sullivan review, which revealed widespread destruction of data on sex, we see a shocking example of the harms this does in policing.”
She added that amending the description to “transgender woman” was not good enough, as some people may not know that a “‘transgender woman’ is not a woman at all, but a man who merely identifies as a woman.”
“This ideologically motivated nonsense makes it much less likely that members of the public can help find this man. It’s also destroying public trust in the police, and making it harder for conscientious public servants to do their job,” she said.
Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp stated that the police were looking to speak with Stone "in connection to a variety of offenses."
He added that they found it was appropriate to describe Stone as a “transgender woman” to support their objective of finding and detaining the suspect.
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Surrey Police issued a public appeal for help finding a 49-year-old “woman” named Skyla Stone.
The appeal read: “We are appealing for the public’s help in finding wanted woman Skyla Stone.
“She is described as a white, with brown hair and blue/green eyes and has links to Guildford.”
After the backlash, they updated the description to refer to Stone as a “transgender woman”, but continued to use the pronoun “she”.
The force was reproached by its own police and crime commissioner, Lisa Townsend.
She said: “I will be making it clear to the force that however well-intentioned this may have been, it is clear to everyone that this is a male, however they choose to identify.”
The Women’s Rights Network (WRN) claimed the force was potentially putting “the public at risk” by making it more difficult for Stone to be located.
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Speaking to The Telegraph, Heather Binning of the WRN said Surrey Police has risked “seriously misleading the public and possibly putting people in danger”.
She added: “It’s not the first time our police forces have put out such misleading messages.”
This move follows a report from the independent Sullivan review, which stated that police forces should be required to record an individual's biological sex instead of solely relying on their self-declared gender identity.
Critics have argued allowing public bodies to remove sex from statistical records undermines research on women’s issues and makes it harder for researchers to identify trends in areas such as rape cases, medical trials, and gender pay gaps.
Helen Joyce, of the organisation Sex Matters said: “The day after the publication of the Sullivan review, which revealed widespread destruction of data on sex, we see a shocking example of the harms this does in policing.”
She added that amending the description to “transgender woman” was not good enough, as some people may not know that a “‘transgender woman’ is not a woman at all, but a man who merely identifies as a woman.”
“This ideologically motivated nonsense makes it much less likely that members of the public can help find this man. It’s also destroying public trust in the police, and making it harder for conscientious public servants to do their job,” she said.
Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp stated that the police were looking to speak with Stone "in connection to a variety of offenses."
He added that they found it was appropriate to describe Stone as a “transgender woman” to support their objective of finding and detaining the suspect.
Find Out More...