From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.advocacy

By Vanguard Administrator
August 8, 2026
By Vanguard Staff

LOS ANGELES rCo People perceived by police as transgender are
significantly more likely to be searched and arrested during law
enforcement encounters in California, even though officers discover
contraband at nearly identical rates across perceived gender groups,
according to new research from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of
Law and the University of California, Irvine.

The findings raise concerns about disparities in how police exercise
discretion during millions of pedestrian and vehicle stops across
California, with researchers finding substantially higher rates of
searches and arrests involving people officers perceived as transgender.

Researchers Jordan Grasso of the Williams Institute and Caro A. Mooney
of UC Irvine analyzed data collected under CaliforniarCOs Racial and
Identity Profiling Act, which requires law enforcement officers to
record their subjective perceptions of people they stop, including
perceived gender.

The researchers examined 4.6 million pedestrian and vehicle stops of
adults reported by California law enforcement agencies in 2023. Of those encounters, 17,916 rCo less than 0.5% rCo involved people officers perceived
as transgender or gender nonconforming.

Despite representing a small share of the overall stops, people
perceived as transgender were searched at substantially higher rates.

About 24% of people perceived as transgender men or women were searched, compared with 14% of people perceived as cisgender men and 8% of those perceived as cisgender women. About 11% of people perceived as gender nonconforming were searched.

The disparity remained notable because searches produced contraband at
almost the same rate regardless of officersrCO perceptions of a personrCOs gender.

Among 576,735 searches conducted in 2023, contraband was discovered in approximately 27% of encounters involving people perceived as
transgender, gender nonconforming or cisgender men. Contraband was found
in about 26% of searches involving people perceived as cisgender women.

Researchers also identified substantial disparities in arrest rates.

About 19% of people perceived as transgender men and 20% of people
perceived as transgender women were arrested during police stops. By comparison, officers arrested 10% of those perceived as cisgender men,
7% of those perceived as cisgender women and 9% of people perceived as
gender nonconforming.

The researchers controlled for race and age while examining the
relationship between officersrCO perceptions of gender and the outcomes of police encounters.

Grasso, a research data analyst at the Williams Institute, said the
findings illustrate the consequences of the discretion officers exercise
during encounters with members of the public.

rCLPolicing is fundamentally discretionary, and officersrCO perceptions of
the people they encounter shape all decisions, from whom they stop and
search to whether a stop escalates to the use of force or an arrest,rCY
Grasso said.

rCLPolice often enforce normative gender expectations, subjecting anyone
who is perceived to disrupt these normsrCoregardless of their actual
gender identityrCoto heightened surveillance and punishment,rCY Grasso
added.

The study focuses specifically on officersrCO perceptions rather than the actual gender identities of the people stopped. Because the Racial and
Identity Profiling Act requires officers to record their subjective perceptions, researchers cannot determine from the data whether people perceived by police as transgender or gender nonconforming actually
identify that way.

California enacted the Racial and Identity Profiling Act in 2015 as part
of an effort to identify and address racial and identity-based
disparities in policing. The law requires law enforcement agencies to
report detailed information about pedestrian and vehicle stops to the California Department of Justice.

The latest research is among the first studies to examine how officersrCO perceptions of gender can influence what happens after a police
encounter begins.

The findings also follow previous research documenting disproportionate
law enforcement contact experienced by LGBTQ people.

A 2024 American Civil Liberties Union report cited by LGBTQ Nation found
that 30.7% of transgender respondents nationally reported having been
arrested and 26.8% reported experiencing physical force by police. Among non-LGBTQ respondents, 13.6% reported having been arrested.

The Williams Institute has similarly reported that LGBTQ people are more
likely than non-LGBTQ people to experience police stops, searches,
arrests and detention over the course of their lives.

The new California findings indicate that disparities emerge not simply
in who encounters police but in what officers do during those
encounters.

Despite essentially equivalent rates of contraband discovery, people
perceived as transgender faced search rates substantially higher than
cisgender people and arrest rates approximately twice those experienced
by people perceived as cisgender women.

The researchers said the results demonstrate how an officerrCOs perception
of gender can affect the trajectory of an encounter, potentially
subjecting people perceived as violating conventional gender
expectations to greater scrutiny and more punitive outcomes.

https://davisvanguard.org/2026/08/california-police-perceived-transgender -disparities/

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