Department of Justice Says Profiling Of Trans People Is Wrong, But Too Many Exceptions

Today, the US Justice Department will release revised guidance on racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies, extending protections for the first time on the basis of national origin, disability, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation, as well as race and ethnicity which were covered by guidance issued in 2003. The inclusion of protections for the LGBT community follows recent federal investigations finding unlawful police profiling of LGBT people, particularly in communities of color. However, the revised guidance contains large carve-outs for TSA airport and border security and certain anti-terror investigations, and will also not apply to most state and local law enforcement activities.

The National Center for Transgender Equality welcomes the historic extension of protections against federal police profiling to the LGBT community, but decries loopholes that will continue to permit most discriminatory policing. According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 46% of transgender people say they would feel somewhat or very uncomfortable seeking police assistance, while only 35% said they would feel comfortable doing so. One-fifth (22%) of all trans people and 38% of Black trans people report experiencing transphobic police harassment—while 6% of all trans people, 9% of trans Latinos, and 15% of Black trans people report having experienced a transphobic assault by police.

Photo Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Photo

The DOJ Must Act: Why Racial and Religious Profiling Rules Can’t Wait

Trina, a transgender woman of color, is not a stranger to police profiling and harassment. When she was 17 years old, she an officer approached her while she was outside with friends at an LGBT community event in Manhattan’s West Village. Trina complied with the officer’s request to see her ID, and that’s when the officer began calling her a man and a “faggot.” Despite having a clean record, Trina was arrested that night because the officer found two condoms in her purse. The alleged crime was for prostitution and she was sent to the men’s holding area.

Transgender people are frequently profiled by law enforcement officers in the United States. Trina, along with other transgender and LGBT people, were among some of those profiled in an expansive new report by the NAACP called, “Born Suspect: Stop-and-Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America.” Released in September 2014—and in anticipation of action by the Department of Justice to address racial and religious profiling in federal investigations—the report documents and analyzes the effectiveness of racial profiling laws across the country. However, as the report states, “the current status of laws across the fifty states leaves little hope for a meaningful solution” to address racial profiling.

That is why guidelines on the use of racial and religious profiling from the Department of Justice are more important than ever—national standards are needed to ensure law enforcement nationwide remove racism and prejudice in their interactions with all people including transgender people of color.

Step Forward: PGPD Abandons Live Tweeting Prostitution Sting

Yesterday evening, the Prince George’s County Police Department (PGPD) in Maryland released a statement after conducting a prostitution sting operation. The PGPD relented to community advocacy and chose not to live tweet during the raid. An announcement last week promised to live tweet photos of those arrested, but in the end there were no live tweets and no arrests.

The PGPD faced criticism from organizations like the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), HIPS and other sex worker rights groups after announcing they would tweet pictures of clients of sex workers at a planned sting operation. That sting operation took place on May 6th with no arrests.

“We’re glad PGPD abandoned the unwise plan of live tweeting after community concern,” said NCTE Director of Policy Harper Jean Tobin,  “However, police should focus on protecting sex workers from those who assault or rob them instead of engaging in broad stings and public shaming. We hope PGPD will collaborate with community members, including advocates for sex workers themselves, on more constructive solutions to violence against sex workers.”

Prince George’s County Police Department: Public Shaming Won’t Work

Last week, the Prince George’s County (Maryland) Police Department announced they would live Tweet an upcoming prostitution sting operation, sharing photos of clients using the #PGPDVice hashtag. The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) immediately contacted the Prince George’s County Police Department (PGPD) Chief Mark Magaw expressing our concern and calling on the department to drop this harsh, public shaming effort and instead engage with sex workers and local advocates on positive steps to address crimes against sex workers and related issues.

Our letter to PGPD states that broad stings and public shaming are regressive tactics that don’t decrease prostitution or address any of the issues associated with it. Instead, it feeds the stigma and fear that make sex workers vulnerable to robberies, assaults, and even abuse by police themselves. While PGPD has been quick to clarify that it won’t be tweeting photos of sex workers, only their customers, we respond: “Targeting sex workers’ customers isn’t any better–it further instills fear and makes it harder for sex workers to protect themselves by screening clients.”

NCTE Director of Policy Harper Jean Tobin said, “We were proud to work with the Prince George’s Police Department recently on a national transgender training program for law enforcement, and we’re glad that PGPD has expressed it is concerned about the exploitation and abuse of sex workers. But this type of crass shaming tactic is not the right way to act on that concern. NCTE urges Chief Magaw to scrap this unwise plan and work with sex workers and their advocates to develop more meaningful approaches to promoting public safety and health.”

Photo Credit: Steve Rhodes/Flickr

Dept. of Justice Unveils Transgender Law Enforcement Training

Yesterday, US Department of Justice (DOJ) Associate Attorney General Tony West launched the Transgender Law Enforcement Training, a first-of-its kind cultural competency training by a federal agency for local law enforcement.

With input from the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and other local and national organizations, the new training will help local authorities improve their interactions with transgender people. Ultimately, the training aims to prevent mistreatment and restore trust between police officers and transgender people who have often faced profiling and violence from law enforcement.

Photo: Ruby Corado

NCTE Joins LGBT Groups in Banning Police Profiling of LGBTQ People in NYC

Today, the National Center for Transgender Equality, along with over a dozen other local and national LGBTQ equality organizations, submitted a letter to the New York City Council urging them to prohibit police profiling based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The statement reads:

From Stonewall to stop and frisk, LGBTQ people – and particularly LGBTQ people of color, LGBTQ youth and transgender and gender nonconforming people – have long been targets of profiling and other forms of discriminatory policing. These consequences have ranges from death to deportation, assault to arrest, homophobic harassment to humiliation.

The New York Times highlighted the significance of this problem when they reported on the experience of Yhatzine Lafontain, a 24-year-old gay man. In March of this year, Lafontain and a friend of his were arrested for being suspected of prostitution because they were dressed in drag.

A Make the Road New York study of a single NYC neighborhood earlier this year found that, of the more than 300 survey respondents, 54% of LGBT respondents experienced some form of police profiling compared to only 28% of straight respondents.

Read the full letter below: