WEST VILLAGE — The majority of victims in cases of LGBTQ-related complaints made against the NYPD from 2010 through 2015 were black or Hispanic, a new report from the Civilian Complaint Review Board found.
The greatest number of complaints were made against the 6th Precinct in the West Village and the 77th Precinct in Crown Heights, according to the CCRB report.
CCRB Acting Chair Deborah Archer said the report “is one of the first by any police oversight agency in the country focusing on issues facing the LGBTQ community vis-à-vis police encounters.
“We’ve come a long way in ensuring that the rights of members of the LGBTQ community are protected, and the report identifies some additional areas for improvement," she continued.
The report looked at 466 complaints that reported police misconduct involving sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity. In particular, they looked at audio where derogatory terms were used or a disregard for the person's preferred gender pronoun or name was shown.
Because of the importance of audio in substantiating such complaints, the CCRB is recommending that the NYPD's body camera program "place a great emphasis on audio as well as video."
They also urged the inspector general for the NYPD to audit the department's treatment of transgender people, and vowed to use their own "investigative and outreach capacity" to help the LGBTQ community.
