Testimony

by DCTC member Jason A. Terry before the DC Council Committee o n the Judiciary Oversight Hearing o n the Metropolitan Police Department February 2 9, 2 012 Councilmember Mendelson and members of the Committee on the Judiciary, thank you for the opportunity to present testimony on behalf of the DC Trans Coalition (DCTC), a grassroots, community organization of transgender, transsexual, and gender non-conforming people (hereinafter, trans) and their allies, dedicated to the protection and advancement of trans rights in the District of Columbia. Finnish education reformer Pasi Sahlberg said recently that accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted. Unfortunately, MPD under the leadership of Chief Cathy Lanier has abdicated its responsibility to keep trans people in the District of Columbia safe. Thus, we are left with no choice b ut to seek accountability for this dereliction. After the spike in anti-trans violence that began in the summer of 2011, we sat down with Chief Lanier and other senior MPD officials to seek a better police response to this violence and ascertain what roadblocks needed to be removed in order for MPD to solve these despicable crimes. In a period wherein we saw two exceptionally violent attacks perpetrated by sworn MPD officers, we also sought assurances that such behavior is not rampant throughout the force. Chief Lanier failed to provide any of the requisite information. We have lost confidence in her ability to address frankly this situation. Meetings with Lanier herself, and indeed with anyone in management at MPD, lead to nothing but hollow promises, and, worse still, repugnant disavowals of r esponsibility. Chief Laniers failure to take responsibility goes so deep, that on January 5, she said on WTOP Radio, with regard to violence against trans people, We'd like to see all of those folks who are in that high-risk environment find ways to increase their safety, and help us out. Rather than attempt to solve crimes, or to advocate for safer conditions for trans people, Chief Lanier simply says it is on us not to get killed. Lanier justified her statement by claiming that many of the trans people victimized have been engaging in sex work at the time of their attacks. Yet we have no evidence to suggest that any of the three trans murder victims from the past year were engaging in sex work at the time of their deaths. This kind of blatant victim-blaming demonstrates deep misunderstanding of the pervasive anti-trans discrimination found throughout our city and our society. In addition, Laniers statement demonstrates a disregard for the sanctity of all human life and is both repulsive and unacceptable from this citys chief law enforcement officer. The people of the District of Columbia deserve better than that, regardless of their identity. Meanwhile, the spike in violence against trans people continues. On February 2, Deoni Jones was fatally stabbed in the face at a bus stop at the intersection of East Capitol Street and Sycamore Street, NE. After she was identified, MPD then issued a flyer using an old mug shot wherein she was presenting as male. Several times in the past year we have asked MPD to use photos that accurately depict a victims gender expression. Several times they have agreed to do so. Yet once again, they broke their promise. It is not helpful to release such photos when people often cannot recognize the

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victim in them. The Jones murder was solved about a week later, and we welcome that development. However, this is the first anti-trans murder solved in a decade. Seven trans murder cases since 2000 remain open. None of them has been classified as bias-related, and MPD has f ailed to explain why these cases continue to go unsolved. Work of the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit We continue to face difficulties with the allegedly-expanded Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU). While the core unit officers and many of the affiliate officers have demonstrated great commitment and professionalism, we hold that r oughly a third or more of the approximately 200 affiliate officers trained since mid-2010 lack the understanding or sensitivity required to respond to cases involving LGBT people. If these officers feel comfortable expressing anti-trans hostility to trainers at the police academy, we can only imagine the kind of disrespect they show people on the street. Late last year, MPD decided that calls for GLLU service will go directly to the affiliate officers, rather than going through the core unit first. Given our lack of faith in many of these affiliates, we have significant reservations about this policy. In addition, core GLLU officers often have to follow up on cases to which affiliates respond, so i t is difficult to understand how the affiliate program effectively manages police resources in current practice. There is also no current list of affiliate officers available, having last been updated in summer 2010. Further, we have received reports from both community members and police officers noting that GLLU is often unavailable by phone or radio when their services are required. Under MPDs General Order 501.02, the GLLU is to be systematically tracking crimes and incidents involving trans people, but this is still not being done, some five years after the order was signed. In one case from December, we were informed by GLLU that a victim was trans, but in reading the police report, there was no i nformation to this effect. It i s surely i mpossible to track data at all when police reports are not accurate. We are thus working with other community organizations to start our own data collection process, so that we can have an accurate picture of anti-trans and anti-LGB violence in DC. Getting GLLU to follow up with its commitments continues to be difficult. GLLUs Critical Incident Team, consisting of several activists and service providers, was promised an opportunity to review and comment upon the Special Liaison Divisions 2012 strategic plan in the fall of 2011. Yet, to date, we have not seen a copy of this plan and cannot even confirm that it exists. We have at various points been told that there will be monthly, themed outreach events in 2012, but so far none has happened. There have also been considerable delays in a proposed joint effort between MPD and community organizations to seek more information on open murders. Indeed, just two weeks ago, GLLU did not even have a list of the murders that need solving. Training Programs Last November, Chief Lanier testified before this committee that she would work with community organizations to make the existing, volunteer-led training program more sustainable. This has not yet happened. In 2011, we were asked to provide eight training classes at the police academy. Already, MPD has requested six classes for the first quarter of 2012 alone, adding in new recruits to the mix. While we welcome the training opportunity, it is increasingly challenging for volunteers to provide these services. In addition, while the trainees are asked to evaluate the training they receive, which we use to make improvements to the curriculum, the trainers have no mechanism for evaluating the trainees. As noted above, some of the would-be GLLU affiliate officers who go through this program have no business b eing called for an LGBT-related incident. Thus the trainers need the ability to express reservations about individual officers.

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Addressing Police Bias As we noted at the November 2011 hearing on hate crimes and police response, we have concluded that a culture of anti-trans bias within MPD is at the root of these persistent challenges. Chief Laniers comments to the media underscore this finding, as does a comment left on the Washington Post website last fall by MPD homicide detective Thomas Smith, who wrote that crimes against trans people are less likely to be solved b ecause they have CREDIBILITY PROBLEMS (emphasis in original). Violent attacks against trans people committed by off-duty officers Raphael Radon in December 2010 and Kenneth Furr in August 2011 have already been well-documented. Furthermore, officers in the LGBT training classes have admitted that they know of colleagues who have solicited sex from trans women in exhange for foregoing sex work arrests, but feel that they are unable to report these incidents to their superiors. Bias is also inherent in MPDs enforcement of so-called Prostitution Free Zones, also known in the community as Trans Profiling Zones. This intrinsic bias against trans people manifests itself i n several ways: Failure to train all officers i n how to interact appropriately with trans people, Failure to devote sufficient resources to solving crimes against trans people, Failure to gather adequate data on crimes involving trans people, Failure to discipline officers who act inappropriately towards trans people, and Increased likelihood of trans people facing arrest f or non-violent crimes. It is also worth noting that there has never been an official study in this city of police bias affecting LGBT people. MPDs last study of biased policing, conducted in 2006, only looked at r ace-based bias against African Americans and Latino/as in pedestrian and traffic stops, and found no evidence of bias. However, the Police Complaints Board expressed significant reservations about the MPD studys research methods and the conclusions reached. In addition, the Police Complaints Board recommended that MPDs now-defunct Biased Policing Task Force continue its work, and expand the scope of research to i nclude other i dentity groups. However, the Biased Policing Task Force has not been called to meet since early 2008.1 We view this as tacit admission that MPD has no interest in addressing other areas of bias. A P ath Forward In our analysis, by late summer 2011, we had reached a point where trans advocates and police officials were talking past each other. Lacking faith in Chief Laniers commitment to our communities, in October 2011, the DC Trans Coalition engaged the Community Relations Service (CRS) of the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue mediation with MPD, with a view towards reducing the level of anti-trans violence in this city, and i mproving relations between police and the communities we serve. CRS staff were able to meet with MPD in late November, but to date, MPD has not agreed to join us in mediation. We sought this path as a good faith effort to get beyond the obvious i mpasses we had reached in the summer. The benefits of a mediation process of this style is that it is entirely confidential for all parties concerned with no airing of dirty laundry while talks take place and we come out at the end with concrete, written commitments for actions both sides can take, with agreed upon deadlines for completion. Why this notion is so offensive to MPD that it is ignored entirely is b eyond our comprehension. Thus, today we sent a letter to Mayor Vincent C. Gray, asking him either to direct Chief Lanier to sit down with us in the presence of a neutral third party or to use other available accountability mechanisms, including submitting the issue of MPDs continued bias against trans people and other
1

See DC Office of Police Complaints, Adressing Biased Policing in Washington, DC: Next Steps, 17 May 2007.

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marginalized groups to the review of the U.S. Department of Justices Civil Rights Division, as was done recently in N ew Orleans, Louisiana. We will not rest until MPD has taken the action it needs to take. Our demands, as they have always been, are simple. We seek: An immediate update on the status of investigations of violent crimes involving trans people, especially the seven unsolved homicides from the past decade; The reestablishment of the Biased P olicing Task Force, with trans representation; Verifiable discipline taken against MPD officers who violate policy related to trans people; and A budget and timetable for ensuring that all MPD officers receive training in interacting with trans people, using community-informed curriculum, over the course of the next 18 months. When we announced our November 17 Trans Day of Action, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia i mmediately reached out to us to address our demands, and in the four months that have followed, we have made significant progress i n bringing the federal elements of DCs legal system into compliance with the DC Human Rights Acts protections based upon gender identity and expression. In the same period, we have made no progress at all with MPD, even as the violence continues. Chief Lanier will tell you that MPD leads the nation in its trans-related policies and procedures. The LGBT liaison unit model was also pioneered here in DC. However, Lanier fails to recognize that this is a remarkably low standard of achievement. The history of mistrust between trans people and police is many decades long, and, in our view, we have never reached a point in DC where we can say that police writ large i nteract with and serve trans people in a manner that is free from bias. I welcome any questions Councilmembers may have. Thank you.