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Celebrating Pride, NYPD and GOAL Highlight Progress for LGBTQIA+

June 24, 2021

Today, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and leadership from the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) highlighted progress that the NYPD has made for LGBTQIA+ members of service and New Yorkers citywide. The Department is also announcing several new efforts including new policy, personnel and leadership.

The Department is committed to maintaining trust with the community, and fostering a safe and welcoming work environment for employees who identify as LGBTQIA+. The Department does not tolerate insensitivity and other negative behavior towards the LGBTQIA+ community. Furthermore, this type of behavior is harmful to our colleagues and has far reaching effects on the communities we serve.

The NYPD’s Office of Equity and Inclusion (OEI) in collaboration with GOAL and the NYPD LGBTQIA+ liaison, design and implement diversity and equity strategies and frameworks to promote the social inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people. In addition to ensuring compliance with employment and anti-discrimination laws, the OEI actively seeks to identify and resolve workplace issues and create a positive work environment through support, awareness, training, and policy initiatives.

In 2020, a working group led by OEI was formed with representatives from a number of bureaus throughout the Department to focus on issues related to LGBTQIA+ employees. These meetings occur monthly, and include OEI, GOAL, LGBTQIA+ Liaison and other relevant stakeholders. There are also quarterly meetings with the Police Commissioner, GOAL, OEI, and Employee Relations.

As a result of this working group, the NYPD has:

  • New policy: Launching a new, voluntary opportunity to self-report data for employees to provide information on sexual orientation as well as an opportunity to update information on gender identity
  • Increased staff: Added seven uniformed members of service within the Community Affairs LGBTQIA+ Outreach Unit
  • New LGBTQIA+ leadership: With the retirement of NYPD LGBTQIA+ Liaison Detective Carl Locke, Sergeant Ana Arboleda has been appointed as the next LGBTQIA+ Liaison within the office of the Chief of Department
  • New personnel employees: Designated personnel in Employee Assistance Unit who can specifically work with LGBTQIA+ employees
  • Enhanced investigative representation on the Hate Crime Task Force: Ensured LGBTQIA+ representation in the Hate Crime Task Force
  • Expanded training: In addition to the GOAL training for every recruit entering the Department, as well as ongoing mandatory modules for all NYPD employees, the Department has developed an inclusive language guide that includes LGBTQIA+ information (e.g., pronouns and terms that reflect/respect gender diversity and support gender diversity).

 

In addition, over the past few years, the NYPD has:

  • Published P.G. 205-68 in 2018, “Member of the Service Seeking to Notify the Department of Transgender or Gender Non-Conforming Transition, or Status.”
  • Revised policy to include discourtesy related to a person’s gender and name in P.G. 203-10, “Public Contact – Preferred Conduct.”
  • Required a person’s (complainant, victim, arrestee) chosen name be captured on department forms and persons treated according to their gender (during a search, while being lodged, etc.)
  • A 2019 apology by Police Commissioner O’Neill about the police department’s role in the 1969 Stonewall raid
  • In 2019, the Office of Equity an Inclusion partnered with GOAL on the first LGBTQIA+ Employee Survey
  • Continued to provide a GOAL LGBTQIA+ Sensitivity and Awareness Workshop that is CALEA accredited and has been provided for many years, for recruits, promotional classes, School Safety, Traffic Enforcement, outside agencies, and others throughout the Department. Members of the community and advocacy groups are regularly invited to oversee these training workshops and provide input for enhancements. The NYPD has also assisted other police departments, like the New York and New Jersey State Police, to develop similar training programs for their employees
  • Published the Gender Identity and Expression booklet, a Gender-Inclusive Pronoun guide, and a LGBTQIA+ Diversity and Inclusion terminology document
  • Consistently provided all mandatory training required by legislation or executive order. OEI expanded training on Executive Order 16 (access to single sex facilities) and added a LGBTQIA+ component to EEO training curriculum for new hires and promotional classes
  • Established the Lavender Alliance, an LGBTQIA+ specific enhancement to the pre-existing NYPD Shield program in our Counterterrorism Bureau, a partnership with private sector security leaders to share information, training, best practices, and lessons learned with the overall goal of enhancing safety in New York City. The Lavender Alliance allows organizations to identify themselves as members of the LGBTQIA+ community and receive various trainings within SHIELD as a group.
  • Ongoing partnership with the LGBTQIA+ Advisory Panel. This advisory group provided LGBTQIA+ community-related recommendations to the NYPD Department Manual in 2012 that were subsequently adopted. This Advisory Panel continues to work with the NYPD and provide recommendations, including recent recommendations related to the documentation of preferred name and gender. We want to thank them for their ongoing partnership and dedication.

 

Please also see our Pride 2021 video: https://youtu.be/XKOuD264csA

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