Our Police are Human Too!

    Complete with all the Human Frailties!

    The following article, taken from a past issue of 'Cross Talk', was written by a serving member of the British Police Force, i.e. direct from the constable's mouth as you might say. The information given is her personal perspective, hopefully a helpful guide to any encounters you may have with the boys and girls in blue.

    Underneath our uniforms apart from various types of underwear, which we won't go into, is a human being. This person has the same emotional feelings, mental attitudes, likes and dislikes as any other average human being. In other words, the attitudes you come across in the police are as varied as in any job or profession.

    We're actually trained to be unbiased and not to discriminate against anybody for their race, colour or gender or anything else come to that matter, but obviously the individual's personality will sometimes emerge, and bearing this in mind you'll come across a fairly wide spectrum of attitudes. I know fellow officers who would be helpful, some would definitely be amused and others, well, they would just be pig ignorant and intolerant.

    The police force is very much a macho organisation and when confronted by yourselves, two or more officers would probably attempt to make witty comments to each other so that they wouldn't show whether they approved or not. I've heard them in the canteen talking about their encounters and most treat it as a humorous situation and laugh about it. There are the obvious comments from some officers of 'faggots' 'queers' etc, but these are similar comments as you would get from any cross section of the population.

    The important thing to remember is that most of us are tolerant and are happy to let people get on with what they want to do, providing of course it's not illegal or upsetting anybody else.

    This brings me to the legal aspects of cross dressing, if that's the right choice of phrase. The first thing to remember is that it is not an offence to dress in the attire of the opposite sex in public. The problems arise from the way other people behave towards you, and of course, how you behave yourself.
 

    You're out walking about town dressed and you are hassled by a group of youths, a drunk, or some other bloody-minded individual. Should the person or group become excessively abusive towards you, it could end up with police intervention. As I've already mentioned, you are not committing any offence by dressing as a woman, but depending on how you act in the situation and the attitude of the officer attending, it could be construed that you, being dressed, has provoked the disturbance and as such a "Breach of the Peace" has occurred.

    Breach of the Peace is the commonest offence that the police deal with on a day to day basis, and officers are not stupid despite what the tabloid press would have you believe, so it should be obvious upon his or her arrival that it's you who is the victim and not the perpetrator of the trouble.

    You can help yourself here by approaching the officer first, explaining the situation. Be as helpful as possible, be polite, answer any questions. If you are calm and sensible despite the way you are dressed, his or her attention will be drawn to the other idiot! However, should you encounter one of my less tolerant colleagues, let me explain the procedure:-

    Should the attending officer decide that it's you that's the cause of the trouble, he has the following options.

    a) He could ask you to leave the area.

    b) He could escort you away from the area.
    c) In the worst case he could arrest you.

    Having given all your correct details you would be thoroughly searched, all monies and personal effects would be removed from you and booked into property. A breach of the peace is a straight forward process with no interview required. The officer would just complete the relevant forms.

    Remember that you are entitled to a solicitor, should you feel the need for one. If you don't know one yourself, you can ask to speak to the duty solicitor, free of charge. Breach of the Peace is one of the few offences that has no bail, because it's believed by the arresting officer that a breach of the peace would re-occur if you were allowed to return to the situation. This means that you would be detained overnight and would be taken before the Court in the morning, the crunch being that you would be dressed as you were arrested. Depending on your ability to pay, you would either be fined or serve a period in one of Her Majesty's hotels.

    The previous scenario is not meant to put you off going out dressed by scaring you witless, but just to make you aware of the worst that can happen. Most police don't like arresting people for this offence, especially if the situation could be resolved in another way. Just bear in mind that if you are daft, it could happen to you.
 

    One of the most common dealings transvestites have with the police is probably whilst driving a car. It's very easy for everybody to help themselves here and ensure they don't get stopped in the first place. Firstly, make sure your car is 100% mechanically and electrically roadworthy, i.e. all your lights work, the exhaust is not hanging off etc. If your car appears normal and doesn't arouse the attention of the police in any other way, there is no reason for us to stop you. We'll pick on someone else, there's plenty of people about just asking us to stop them. The golden rule is don't attract attention, drive at the appropriate legal speed, drive sensibly, don't race amber lights and don't hog the road. All very simple common sense advice.
 

    Now don't try to be clever here, remember by the time you've been stopped, in most cases the officer will already know who the car's registered owner actually is, having conducted a routine computer check over the radio. So don't, whatever you do, try giving a false name and address. Section 25 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act allows him to arrest you and take you to the Police Station until he can verify who you are.

    If your car is a company car, say so! Tell the officer who the company is, we won't phone them or inform on you. All we're trying to establish here is that the car is being driven by the person it's supposed to be driven by and not "Billy - the car thief".

    If you have your correct documents with you (Driving Licence, Insurance Certificate, MOT) he may let you proceed on your way. If you don't have the relevant paperwork, he will give you a form to produce them within 7 days to a police station of your choice. If they are in order, that's the last you'll hear of it, if not, you could be summonsed to the Court. So the motto here is make sure your car's paperwork is all in order.

    I know this might sound like stating the obvious but under no circumstances even think about drinking and driving! Should you be found to be over the limit by the officer he would arrest you on the spot. You would be taken to the Police Station and if after providing a specimen, you are found to be over the limit, you would be charged and taken to Court. Whilst at the station you would have to undergo the humiliation of being searched and possibly mocked by one of my less thoughtful colleagues. Once charged, you would be fingerprinted, photographed and a computer record of your details created. This record would stay in existence until you die (unless the Court found you not guilty - then it would be destroyed along with the fingerprints).

    Once you'd been fingerprinted and photographed, you would be released, but only after an officer had called at your home address to verify it. You wouldn't be allowed to collect your car until the following day or for at least several hours after the arrest. So don't drink and drive under any circumstances, it's just not worth it.
 

    We should never seek to attract attention unless we are in secure surroundings, but if we are surrounded by kindred souls then "the sky's the limit"  :-)

    Terri Anne.