Chicago Police Department failing transgender community: report

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Less than two weeks before Chicago inaugurates its first openly gay mayor, the Chicago Police Department was cited Tuesday as one of 25 big-city police departments that fails to adequately protect the rights of transgender people.

This despite a 2015 general order setting guidelines for how officers are to treat transgender arrestees.

The report by the National Center for Transgender Equality was released ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City’s Greenwich Village. It examined 25 of the nation’s largest police departments and found all fell short at taking “proactive measures to prevent the mistreatment and misidentification of transgender people during arrests, witness interviews, search and seizure and housing of transgender people.”

Several specific criticisms are in the report, including that CPD:

• Does not “clearly prohibit” officers from asking “invasive questions of transgender and gender nonconforming people that are not relevant to the police interaction.” That’s even though department policy “explicitly prohibits the use of gender identity or expression as a basis to stop, question, search or arrest” someone “as a sole basis for initiating contact or as evidence of a crime.”

• Fails to require police officers to “contact dispatch at the beginning and end of transport and to document mileage from start to finish of each trip to transport transgender arrestees.” CPD policy does allow transgender arrestees to “request an officer of their gender identity to be present for the transport” but requires them to be “transported separately from other arrestees,” the report states.

• Does not prohibit sexual misconduct by Chicago Police officers, establish prevention or accountability mechanisms for officer sexual misconduct or fully incorporate lockup standards.

• Does not bar officers from monitoring public restroom use or address bathroom use in stations.

• Does not prohibit confiscation or use of condoms as evidence.

• Fails to “explicitly recognize nonbinary gender identities or state how policies on pronouns, searches or placement apply to them.”

The Chicago Police Department responded to the report by reiterating its commitment to treat “every resident of Chicago with respect and dignity.”

“Chicago’s strength is in its diversity, and in order to continue to improve community relations through reform, transparency and accountability, we are reviewing policies and procedures to best provide quality services to diverse communities,” the statement said.

“To better prepare our officers for serving LGBTQ+ communities, we are revising policies and protocols for arrests, pat downs, searches, transportation and detention, as is required by the federal consent decree.”

The statement noted that CPD worked with the Center on Halsted to develop an “online training module on the transgender community, which was completed by all CPD members” last year.

“As we continue revising policies, we will continue to seek input and collaboration from LGBTQ+ organizations such as the Center on Halsted and others,” the statement said.

CPD was not alone among big-city police departments that came up short in the report.

Of 25 police departments surveyed, none “explicitly requires regular training on transgender interaction for all members.”

None required officers to “respectfully record the name currently being used by the individual that is separate from the spaces used for legal names or aliases” in department forms.

In addition, none of the 25 “explicitly provides for transgender individuals to be transported along with individuals of the same gender identity.” Only two departments “explicitly prohibited” sexual conduct between officers and those in their custody. And 16 departments examined were accused of falling short in their search policies.

“On the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, transgender people of color remain targets of harassment, abuse and violence,” Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a news release.

“If we ever hope to end this crisis, police departments must evolve to meet the needs of the communities they are sworn to serve. The solutions we offer can lead these communities and our nation’s law enforcement to a more equitable future. But we must get there together.”

A 2015 general order includes specific instructions on how Chicago Police officers are to handle transgender arrestees with dignity and respect.

For example, officers were instructed to “use pronouns as requested by the individual: she, her, hers for an individual who self-identifies as a female and he, him, his for someone who self-identifies as a male.”

“If members are uncertain by which gender the individual should be addressed, members will respectfully ask the individual for clarification”[and], when requested, address that person “by a name based on their gender identity, rather than that which is on their government ID,” the general order states.

The order also prohibits Chicago Police officers from: disclosing an individual’s gender identity; using derogatory language; stopping, detaining, frisking or searching any person, “in whole or in part for the purpose of determining that person’s gender or in order to call attention to the person’s gender expression”; or using gender identification as “reasonable suspicion or prima facia evidence that the individual “is or has engaged in a crime, including prostitution.”

Officers were directed to classify arrestees according to the gender that appears on their government identification card unless they are “post-operative” after undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

When practical, transgender arrestees are to be transported alone. Upon request, a department member of the arrestee’s “gender identity or expression will be present during transport,” the order states.

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