A Northumbria Police detective has been dismissed for gross misconduct and placed on the national barred list after referring to transgender women as “cocks in frocks” while criticising the force’s strip-search guidelines. Detective Constable Rachel Fletcher, 49, a single mother of two with around 20 years’ service, was reported by male colleagues. The phrase was used during a discussion of force policy that allowed biological males who identify as women to insist on being strip-searched by a female officer. The policy derived from National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) guidance in force between 2022 and early 2024, which let gender identity determine who carried out intimate searches. The High Court dismissed a challenge to that guidance brought by the campaign group Sex Matters on July 31.