Gendered policing and policing gender: The Trans Community and An Garda Síochána

The relationship between the police service and the communities it serves is vital to an open and functioning democracy. While Ireland’s police force, An Garda Síochána, enjoy very high levels of public confidence overall, these levels of trust are not replicated across all communities within the State. This research, which involved a survey of 61 members of the trans community, as well as three focus groups and four one-on-one interviews with a further 19 trans people, sought to explore and understand the relationship between the trans community and the police in Ireland. It explored both attitudinal and experiential perspectives, and finds that the high levels of public confidence enjoyed by An Garda Síochána generally are not replicated in the trans community.