SUSSEX Police are looking to change the way gender is recorded on crimes.
The force is required to provide demographic data, including gender, to monitor crime trends.
It will now be providing gender neutral options. Options are being explored to allow for other gender identities to be recorded in addition to male and female.
The Sussex Police website said: “The Home Office require us to capture demographic information which they use to monitor crime trends. Therefore we record the gender of people that interact with us.
“Often we are only able to record binary options of male or female in our systems. We are making changes where we can include other gender identities as well as using the gender neutral honorific, ‘Mx’.”
The force is currently at the centre of a row following the conviction of serial paedophile Sally Ann Dixon.
Dixon, 58, is a trans woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for historic sexual offences committed while living as a man.
Sussex Police came under fire for referring to Dixon as a woman. It reponded by tweeting that they “do not tolerate any hateful comments towards their gender identity regardless of crimes committed”.
READ MORE: Sussex Police slammed by commissioner in sex offender row
New Home Secretary Suella Braveman was among several high-profile figures to condemn the force, saying it should "focus on catching criminals not policing pronouns".
The force's own crime commissioner, Katy Bourne, joined in the criticism, saying: “I am so disappointed that a successful prosecution by Sussex Police against a vile child sex offender has been completely overshadowed by the fallout from an unnecessary and tone-deaf tweet.”
Her office said she had told the Home Secretary the force had “somewhat lost the plot by voicing opinions that appeared to ignore or demean the experiences of the victims in this case”.
Sussex Police have since apologised, saying: "An earlier reply to a comment on Twitter was inconsistent with our usual style of engagement; we apologise for this and have removed the comment.
"We recognise the rights of the public to express themselves freely within the boundaries of the law."
The force did not respond to a request for comment on the way it plans to record gender.
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