Note: This piece was originally written for a class.
The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia ranked among the best police departments in the country for policies regarding interactions with transgender individuals. However, advocates say the department’s actions are part of a national trend in which law enforcement agencies fail to adequately protect transgender communities, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Center for Transgender Equality.
“The report found systemic neglect by police nationwide to take proactive measures to prevent the mistreatment and misidentification of transgender people during arrests, witness interviews, search and seizure, and housing,” NCTE said in a press release.
By partnering with dozens of local and state groups, NCTE compiled transgender interaction and protection policies for the nation’s 25 largest municipal police departments.
Of the departments profiled, MPD met the criteria for seven of the 17 recommended policies, tying the Milwaukee Police Department for the second highest number of criteria met. The San Francisco Police Department came in first by meeting eight of the NCTE’s criteria.
The two geographically and demographically closest peer agencies to MPD–the Baltimore and Baltimore County police departments–met just two of the criteria.
The MPD is also one of only nine departments surveyed that includes gender identity in its non-discrimination policy, which the report said “is the best way to clarify that transgender people are protected.”
Transgender arrestees are marked as “at-risk” on arrest and prosecution reports to indicate that they “may experience hostility or other negative behaviors from other arrestees,” according to the general order, a step advocates consider is in the right direction.
“As a result of longstanding work in the community, we have established and maintain a strong and collaborative relationship with many LGBTQ+ businesses, organizations, community leaders and individuals,” Alaina Gertz, an MPD public affairs specialist, said in an email. “We are proud to be part of [NCTE’s] report, as our agency serves as a leader in the field of law enforcement regarding the issues to important to NCTE.”
As part of a push to better serve the District’s transgender community, MPD issued a general order in January 2015 that outlined how members are supposed to handle interactions with transgender individuals. Members are prohibited from searching someone to determine their gender, according to the general order.
Despite this, a transgender man filed a lawsuit in April 2019 alleging that, in August 2017, an MPD officer and a U.S. Marshal groped him to “determine his anatomical gender,” according to court documents. The plaintiff also alleges an MPD officer told his girlfriend that his identity as a transgender man was delaying his release from police custody.
Without mentioning the lawsuit, the report criticized MPD for the ways in which it perpetuates negative stereotypes and the mistreatment of transgender people, despite its comparatively high marks in relation to the other departments surveyed.
Not a single department surveyed required regular training on transgender interaction policies for all members, nor did any provide a way for officers to “respectfully” document the chosen name of a transgender individual separate from the space used for aliases on department forms.
Similar to many peer departments, MPD requires transgender arrestees be transported separately from non-transgender arrestees, according to the 2015 general order. This policy contradicts the model guidelines set out in the NCTE report, which would require law enforcement to transport transgender individuals with people of the same gender identity.
Once transgender arrestees are brought to a lockup facility, they are housed in a separate cell from other detainees but in the same cell block as detainees of the same gender identity. If a single cell is unavailable, arrestees are housed with fellow trans individuals of the same gender identity. If there is not another trans detainee, trans individuals are housed with non-transgender detainees of the same gender identity.
In an attempt to support the larger work of various movements working for police reform and accountability, the NCTE also analyzed policies that did not have an immediate connection to the transgender community. For this, the report looked at issues of officer sexual misconduct, sex work evidence collection and immigration enforcement.
The report blasts MPD for failing to establish prevention or accountability mechanisms for sexual misconduct. MPD was not one of the two police departments NCTE found that explicitly prohibit sexual conduct between officers and those in their custody.
The lack of such a policy has already backfired for MPD. In November 2018, an MPD officer and a Prince George’s County officer were under investigation for allegedly threatening transgender sex workers with arrest if they did not participate in sex acts with the officers, according to a video obtained by Fox 5 News of D.C.
Historically, transgender people have been harassed and abused by law enforcement, said the NCTE. The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found that nearly 60 percent of transgender people who interacted with police in the last year were mistreated, meaning they were verbally harassed, misgendered, physically assaulted or forced to engage in sex acts upon arrest.
“Transgender people face staggering levels of violence, homelessness, and poverty in the United States, with transgender people of color experiencing the greatest disparities,” the report said. “Thus, it is not surprising that, even though transgender people are more likely to be victims of violent crime…, over half of all [U.S. Transgender Survey] respondents feel uncomfortable calling the police for help when they need it.”
Transgender women of color, specifically black trans women, are the most at-risk population within the trans community. As of 2018, the life expectancy for trans women of color in the U.S. was just 31 years old, according to the Consumer Health Foundation. Of the 129 transgender people who have been murdered in the U.S. since 2013, 96 were black trans women, per data compiled by the Human Rights Campaign.
When it comes to interactions with the police, black trans people have to deal with the compounding effects of racism and transphobia. One in eight black trans people reported having been physically or sexually assaulted by a police officer, and one in three black trans women had an officer assume they were involved in sex work.
“On the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots, transgender people of color remain targets of harassment, abuse, and violence,” Mara Keisling, executive director of NCTE, said in a press release. “If we ever hope to end this crisis, police departments must evolve to meet the needs of the communities they have sworn to serve.”
“As we continue to make groundbreaking advancements towards transgender equality, many members of our communities continue to be affected by disproportionate contact with, and often by bias and abuse within, policing and the criminal justice system,” the report said. “We will not stop the widespread violence against trans people until we change how our communities are policed.”