The Metropolitan Police Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit is expanding this November, when 20 new officers from Patrol Districts will be trained to respond to calls from the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community while on patrol.
Currently, the unit includes four officers, plus a sergeant who heads both the GLLU and the Latino Liaison Unit.
The GLLU and LLU are two of six liaison units in the Metropolitan Police Department, all of which D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier plans to expand through training of regular patrol officers, according to MPD spokesperson Traci Hughes.
“Having the additional officers out working in the District with this training will greatly enhance our efforts to forge positive relationships with the GLBT community,” Hughes said in an e-mail.
Founded in 2000, the GLLU is one of 33 specialty units in the MPD, and its members are openly gay and lesbian officers who provide 24-hour police response to people in the GLBT community, according to the GLLU Web site.
The same year the GLLU was established, it received the “Innovations in American Government Award,” winning $100,000 from Harvard University’s Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation for “reaching out to an underserved community and creating a model for community policing,” according to the GLLU Web site.
Now people in the D.C. gay community are worried that the addition of 20 officers will diminish the unit’s effectiveness by diminishing the personal connection they had built with the unit, according to The Washington Post.
Many AU students have used the resources of the GLLU, according to Sara Bendoraitis, Director of AU’s GLBTA Resource Center. In addition, the GLLU has collaborated with the GLBTA Resource Center to provide information and workshops at AU, she said.
“The GLLU serves an important role for the GLBTA community here in the D.C. area and also is a public show of recognition by MPD that this community is supported and important,” Bendoraitis said.
However, Bendoraitis thinks it would be good for all officers to be trained to understand the specific needs of those they serve.
“Each specific community has very distinct needs and fears that the officers should be trained to deal with,” she said.
Many in the gay community are concerned that the GLLU staff is being diluted at a time when hate crime is rising, according to the Post.
The number of hate crime cases has fluctuated since 2005. However, the instances of reported sexual orientation hate crimes each year consistently constitute more than the number of reported hate crimes based on ethnicity, race, religion and disability combined. In 2007, 26 out of 37 hate crimes were based on sexual orientation; in 2008, the ratio was 30 out of 37; and in January through August of 2009, it was 24 out of 28, according to MPD’s Web site.
At AU, the rate of hBy MEG FOWLER
Eagle Staff Writer
The Metropolitan Police Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit is expanding this November, when 20 new officers from Patrol Districts will be trained to respond to calls from the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community while on patrol.
Currently, the unit includes four officers, plus a sergeant who heads both the GLLU and the Latino Liaison Unit.
The GLLU and LLU are two of six liaison units in the Metropolitan Police Department, all of which D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier plans to expand through training of regular patrol officers, according to MPD spokesperson Traci Hughes.
“Having the additional officers out working in the District with this training will greatly enhance our efforts to forge positive relationships with the GLBT community,” Hughes said in an e-mail.
Founded in 2000, the GLLU is one of 33 specialty units in the MPD, and its members are openly gay and lesbian officers who provide 24-hour police response to people in the GLBT community, according to the GLLU Web site.
The same year the GLLU was established, it received the “Innovations in American Government Award,” winning $100,000 from Harvard University’s Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation for “reaching out to an underserved community and creating a model for community policing,” according to the GLLU Web site.
Now people in the D.C. gay community are worried that the addition of 20 officers will diminish the unit’s effectiveness by diminishing the personal connection they had built with the unit, according to The Washington Post.
Many AU students have used the resources of the GLLU, according to Sara Bendoraitis, Director of AU’s GLBTA Resource Center. In addition, the GLLU has collaborated with the GLBTA Resource Center to provide information and workshops at AU, she said.
“The GLLU serves an important role for the GLBTA community here in the D.C. area and also is a public show of recognition by MPD that this community is supported and important,” Bendoraitis said.
However, Bendoraitis thinks it would be good for all officers to be trained to understand the specific needs of those they serve.
“Each specific community has very distinct needs and fears that the officers should be trained to deal with,” she said.
Many in the gay community are concerned that the GLLU staff is being diluted at a time when hate crime is rising, according to the Post.
The number of hate crime cases has fluctuated since 2005. However, the instances of reported sexual orientation hate crimes each year consistently constitute more than the number of reported hate crimes based on ethnicity, race, religion and disability combined. In 2007, 26 out of 37 hate crimes were based on sexual orientation; in 2008, the ratio was 30 out of 37; and in January through August of 2009, it was 24 out of 28, according to MPD’s Web site.
At AU, the rate of hate crimes are comparatively low, according to Bendoraitis.
“This does not mean, though, that our students do not experience violence and discrimination off campus and in the greater D.C. area,” Bendoraitis said. “We have had a number of students involved incidents off campus that ranged from derogatory language to physical violence.”
You can reach this staff writer at mfowler@theeagleonline.com.
