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Trans Victims, Inmates In Chicago Report 'Lack Of Respect' From Police

By Linze Rice | January 19, 2017 8:48am
 Two women at a memorial for T.T. Saffore, a transgender woman who was killed in Chicago in 2016.
Two women at a memorial for T.T. Saffore, a transgender woman who was killed in Chicago in 2016.
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DNAinfo/Evan F. Moore

CHICAGO — The Chicago Police Department needs to better interact with and build policies around transgender citizens — be they victims, suspects or detainees — the recent U.S. Justice Department report on the Police Department found. 

Investigators said they met with over 340 Police Department members and 23 members of the Independent Police Review Authority, in addition to citizens and advocacy groups, to compile the 164-page document released last week. 

In that report, investigators said "a striking feature" of conversations with people in the transgender community was the amount of concern expressed about "the lack of respect in their interactions with police" — whether they are reporting a crime or the target of police activity themselves. 

Investigators also found the Police Department failed to recognize transgender arrestees' gender identity when it came to strip searches and housing — a violation of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.

"The findings are unfortunately not surprising," said Demoya Gordon, an attorney with Lambda Legal specializing in transgender rights. "These are issues we know affect the transgender community nationwide."

Transgender citizens and advocates also told federal investigators they did not feel reports of hate crimes were taken seriously by the Police Department, in particular when it came to transgender women murdered in the city. 

Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Police Department, said he felt the Police Department had a "strong" relationship with the LGBTQ community. 

"I think we have a pretty strong relationship in the 19th District and other areas ... in the whole LGBTQ community," Guglielmi said. "We try to really form a bond with every diverse community group that lives within the city."

But the Justice Department's report said the Police Department needs serious reforms when it comes to minority groups in Chicago.

Misclassifying transgender arrestees

The report commended the Police Department for updating its policies regarding transgender members of the community and arrestees in December 2015, but said even those guidelines fail "to ensure that transgender individuals are classified by their gender identity and does not require officers to ask an individual their preference regarding the gender of the officer to conduct a search."

When a transgender suspect is arrested, officers are supposed to note  if the person's gender identity is transgender. 

According to the most recent Police Department directive, if a member of the Police Department knows a person is transgender — either because the person explicitly says so, she or he is observed presenting as another gender or police records list a conflicting gender — that police official is supposed to notify lockup before delivering the person into custody. 

But that directive means little in Chicago, because once they arrive at central booking, trans arrestees are housed according to their biological sex — not gender identity. If possible, they are jailed alone, according to police procedures. 

From that point forward, police refer to transgender detainees based on their biological sex. 

"Any name used by the subject other than what is listed on their government-issued identification will be recorded as an alias," according to the Police Department directive.

The Chicago Police Department needs to improve its relationship with transgender citizens, the U.S. Justice Department said. [DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin]

Complying With The Prison Rape Elimination Act

Criminal justice experts and transgender advocacy groups say that the Police Department and many other departments throughout the country violate federal law by not taking into account a person's gender — how someone views his or herself as a man or woman — when it comes to police custody. 

"That is in direct contravention of these regulations that say it should be an individualized case-by-case decision ... and unfortunately that is by and large not happening," Gordon said. "And obviously not happening at the Chicago Police Department, which is why the DOJ called them out on it."

Indeed, in 2012 the Justice Department amended the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 to add provisions that require prisons, jails and other holding facilities to take gender identity into consideration when housing inmates and arrestees. In March 2016, the department reasserted its stance

According to the act, law enforcement and lockup agencies "shall consider on a case-by-case basis whether a placement would ensure the inmate’s health and safety," and that a transgender inmate’s "own views with respect to his or her own safety shall be given serious consideration."

The Police Department may not fully comply with that law, but the Cook County Sheriff's Department said it is trying to.

In 2011, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart issued a directive ordering correctional officers to use preferred pronouns and names of transgender inmates, established a committee to assess the needs of trans inmates on an individual basis and created an avenue for trans inmates to be housed according to gender identity.

Nationally, 15 percent of transgender detainees report being sexually assaulted while in jail or police custody, with that number jumping to 32 percent for trans individuals who are black, according to the Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime.

A 2013 report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs found that transgender people of color were on average likely to experience physical violence from a police officer six times more often than non-trans individuals.

The Police Department said it did not plan to update its policies regarding housing or searching transgender individuals in custody. 

Hate crimes not taken seriously 

Further, the Justice Department report on the Police Department said members of the transgender community reported not being taken seriously when it came to hate crimes and murders.

The Justice Department reported that trans community members and advocates were "concerned by the investigations of the murders of several transgender women in recent years."

In those cases, the Police Department's civil rights unit wasn't asked to look at the investigations as potential hate crimes, the Justice Department noted.

"Not only are members of this community upset that these crimes were never investigated as hate crimes, but they are also concerned that CPD’s failure to solve any of the murders reflects a lack of commitment to these cases," the report said.

In 2016, at least 21 members of the transgender community were killed by violent means, though not all are believed to be related to transphobic bias, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the self-proclaimed largest national LGBTQ civil rights organization

On that list is T.T. Saffore, a black trans woman in her mid-20s from Chicago who was mourned by the local trans community last summer after she was found with her throat slit. 

Other members of the trans community spoke then with DNAinfo about treatment of trans citizens by police, saying they felt murders of transgender women in Chicago weren't being treated with dignity. 

Saffore's body was found blocks from where Paige Clay, another trans woman from the West Side, was found three years earlier. 

When it comes to pursuing hate crime charges, Guglielmi said it's often harder to prove crimes were motivated by bias. Investigators have to prove an unlawful act was committed because of a person's protected status. That evidence is presented to the State's Attorney's Office, which sets criminal charges. 

"Certainly when you have a case in the transgender community and individuals as assaulted, we definitely take a very careful look at that to see — was this individual assaulted because of a life choice, what was the motivating factor behind it?" Guglielmi said. "Or was it a robbery? Was it some type of gang-related incident? Was it wrong place, wrong time?"

"Frankly that's what the criminal justice needs in order to present the strongest prosecution possible."

Paige Clay, a transgender woman, was slain on the West Side in 2013. [Handout]

Going forward

The Police Department and other departments around the country "absolutely" need to better comply with federal law regarding gender identity and law enforcement protocols, Gordon said. 

"This is a pervasive issue, the roots of which is systemic societal discrimination at large, but there's a particular problem in law enforcement, specifically which I think the DOJ was trying to bring attention to," Gordon said. "And I think they're hoping to actually bring some action against it."

Some of the items in the report may have been avoided had the Police Department consulted more with trans groups while forming updated department guidelines, federal officials said. 

"CPD might have more effectively addressed these concerns had CPD’s outreach to the transgender community been more extensive," the report said, adding that the department's single LGBTQ liaison was "insufficient to ensure collaboration and ongoing partnership with this community."

Guglielmi said new officers will be required to spend more time meeting with anchors in their future policing communities before coming on duty to get a better sense of who they are serving. 

"It's really about training, training the officers to understand the community in which they police, in which they serve," he said. "It's getting to know the people that live there, and getting to know the cultural differences between the neighborhoods of Chicago."

He said the Police Department recently held hiring events to draw more LGBTQ officers and added an LGBTQ media liaison to the Police Department's News Affairs Office. 

Sgt. Cindy Guerra, formerly with the Police Department's special investigations unit, who was publicly celebrated last summer after saving a boy from drowning in an Orland Park pool while off-duty, was brought on about a month ago to speak with media regarding LGBTQ issues, she said.

"I look forward to raising awareness on both sides of the spectrum from a policing point of view and the view of the LGBTQ community as well," she wrote in an email to DNAinfo Tuesday.