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 NPCC withdrew it in 2024 after campaigners argued it conflicted with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which requires searches going beyond outer clothing to be carried out by an officer of the same sex.
Interim guidance drawn up after the Supreme Court judgment of April 16, 2025 on the meaning of sex still permits a cross-sex search where detainee and officer both consent, and says officers who decline face no career detriment.
The High Court dismissed a challenge to that guidance brought by the campaign group Sex Matters on July 31.
A misconduct panel also considered allegations that she had made sexist remarks about men, including a claim that she said “all men are rapists”.
Fletcher has denied the latter wording, stating she said “all rapists are men”, and has described other comments as jokes or throwaway remarks.
The panel found her conduct breached professional standards on equality and diversity, authority, respect and courtesy, and discreditable conduct.
She was dismissed without notice and added to the College of Policing’s barred list, which prevents her from working as a police officer in England and Wales.
The same list includes former Metropolitan Police officers Wayne Couzens, convicted of the murder of Sarah Everard, and serial rapist David Carrick.
Fletcher had worked extensively in child protection and family liaison.
She played a significant role in the investigation that led to the conviction of prolific paedophile Ross Jackson, who received a 23-year sentence in Newcastle in February.
Character witnesses described her as hardworking and diligent.
She has said she was made a “scapegoat” for challenging a strip-search policy she regarded as unlawful and for speaking out on the rights of women and girls.
She has said her name now sits “on a list with rapists and murderers”.
She intends to appeal the dismissal and already has an employment tribunal claim relating to alleged discriminatory treatment.
Northumbria chief constable Vanessa Jardine held the NPCC portfolio on LGBTQ issues until recently and worked on its guidance on transgender people, the Daily Mail reported.
Northumbria Police said her comments were sexist, inappropriate, offensive and, in one instance, transphobic, and that they had brought the service into disrepute. The force declined further comment on the outcome.
The UK government has formally scrapped its system of recording non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs), which for years has controversially seen police forces divert their resources into investigating lawful speech, online arguments and even silent prayer. https://t.co/khBkKbzlP0
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 31, 2026
