AG Uthmeier demands that GPD rescind policy allowing officers “with the same gender expression” to search detainees
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has sent a letter to the Gainesville Police Department, demanding that the agency rescind a policy stating that searches “should be conducted by an officer with the same gender expression or identity” as the individual being searched. Uthmeier wrote, “This policy serves no legitimate law enforcement purpose, endangers officers and detainees, and violates Florida law.”
Uthmeier wrote that there are several important governmental interests underlying standard law enforcement search policies, but “affirming an individual’s ‘gender expression or identity’ — a self-reported feeling decoupled from physical reality and unverifiable by third parties — is not one of them.”
AG Uthmeier: “Searches of females by male officers who identify as female create parallel safety, privacy, and dignity concerns for female detainees… A search policy that subordinates biology to ideology jeopardizes the safety and wellbeing of officers and detainees.”
Uthmeier continued, “[The search policy] imposes an unsafe and illogical requirement for female officers to search males who identify as female yet who possess the strength, size, and anatomy of a male. Searches of females by male officers who identify as female create parallel safety, privacy, and dignity concerns for female detainees. This is not a neutral accommodation: it imposes asymmetric burdens on females based on a mental state — gender identity — that has nothing to do with the biological considerations that must be addressed when officers search detainees. A search policy that subordinates biology to ideology jeopardizes the safety and wellbeing of officers and detainees.”
Uthmeier wrote that the policy “likely violates the Florida Civil Rights Act… A policy that disproportionately puts female officers in uncomfortable and dangerous positions violates the FCRA because it ensures ‘members of one sex are exposed to disadvantageous terms or conditions of employment to which members of the other sex are not exposed.'”
Uthmeier asked the agency to confirm that the policy has been rescinded by August 15.
Gainesville Police Department told Alachua Chronicle they will need to review the letter before providing comment.
Upside down world
When is the Gainesville Police Department going to put traffic officers back on the streets. There are red light runners at every intersection getting away with endangering others. There are two police cars always parked in the woods off of 23rd Avenue near Ward supermarket. They’ve been hiding in the woods for years. They need to be on 6th Street and 23rd Avenue watching out for the red light Runners that are doing it daily. There have been many deaths at that intersection due to Driver’s negligence.
They can’t keep panhandlers out of 39th & Waldo.,, they don’t see this?
See something, do something!..
The FDLE needs to do a sting operation for those police who drive by and do nothing…
How about addressing more pressing business Mr Attorney General…
Hope Florida is the community-based, state-wide welfare assistance initiative launched by First Lady Casey DeSantis in 2021.
That $10 million was part of a legal settlement that the state later diverted by Hope Florida to political committees — one controlled by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ then-chief of staff James Uthmeier — and used to help defeat a 2024 ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational marijuana.
Revelation of the controversy led to an investigation in the Florida House of Representatives in 2025 and later a grand jury investigation by State Attorney Jack Campbell in Tallahassee. No charges were brought in that investigation but, under state law, the report was supposed to have been released within 15 days of its completion, unless someone in the report (or “presentment”) objected and asked for redactions or withholding.
Of course this problem is the result of Gainesville ultra left politicians welcoming and encouraging DEI and the pride parade.
Enough of this stupid liberal gender and DEI BS!
How absurd and a waste of taxpayers money to do this ridiculous “investigation.”
GPD said no actual letter has been received yet. The AG posted it on social media.
Should not even be a discussion. Males and females search same sex, period!!
The main super PAC backing Moody, called Stronger Safer Nation, has paid Crosby Ottenhoff Group $38,000 for campaign finance consulting services. That the Hope Florida Foundation’s record-keeping is being held in the same building as the super PAC backing Moody’s reelection campaign is notable, in part, because of her office’s role in drafting settlement agreement that started the chain of events resulting in millions of taxpayer dollars going to political ads.
Hey..Invy!!! (snaps fingers and shines a light in Invy’s eyes) Try to focus. Stay relevant to the article. C’mon, buddy. Your RDS has reached critical level.
Grow up! You Dems brainwash our schools and colleges with BILLIONS of taxpayer money 👺👿🤡👹💩
From the view of the legislature, the city of Gainesville’s one and only job is to provide a safe home for the University. All the recent audits and slap downs from Tallahassee are nothing compared to the hammer that will come if the city has biological males doing pat down searches of drunk co-eds.
What about animal identity or plant, plankton identity too?
ACLUSPLCDNC Party approved this message 👺💩👹👿🤡
This is a mute point. If you are a biological female arrestee you are searched by a female and if you are a biological male arrestee you are searched by a male. There are circumstances at times that warrant patdown searches by the opposite sex. Doing searches by allowing people to choice which flavor they want to be at the time is invitation to a lawsuit.