California Police More Likely to Stop, Search, and Arrest People Perceived as Trans, Report Finds

A new report out of the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law has found that people who are perceived to be transgender are searched and arrested at higher rates than those who are perceived as cisgender.

The group found that is “despite similar rates of contraband discovery among all groups.”

In a press release, the Williams Institute said that its researchers used data collected in 2023 through the state’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act — the law makes officers in California make note of any subjective perceptions they have when they stop someone.

Researchers found that about a fourth of people perceived to be trans men and trans women were searched by police. However, only 14% of those perceived as cis men and 8% of those perceived as cis women were searched.

When it comes to actual contraband discovery, the numbers were essentially the same across the board for these groups: It was discovered in situations involving approximately 27% of people perceived as transgender, gender nonconforming, or cisgender men, and in 26% of those perceived as cisgender women.

The Williams Institute also found that despite those similar rates, those that officers perceived as trans were arrested about 20% of the time (19% for trans men and 20% for trans women). That number is double that of those perceived as cis men, 10%, and more than double as cis women, 7%.

“Policing is fundamentally discretionary, and officers’ 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,” said study author Jordan Grasso, research data analyst at the Williams Institute, in the release. “Police often enforce normative gender expectations, subjecting anyone who is perceived to disrupt these norms—regardless of their actual gender identity—to heightened surveillance and punishment.”