The Milwaukee Police Department will no longer include a crime victim’s race or gender in its public communications after previous cases of gender discrimination by transgender crime victims.
“It’s a way to preserve the dignity and privacy of all victims,” Heather Hough, chief of staff for the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), said last week, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “MPD wants to ensure the best possible service for our entire community.”
The announcement was made last Wednesday after the department held conversations with members of the LGBTQ community, according to Hough.
Milwaukee is a Democratic stronghold in the state and has been led by Democratic mayors since 1960.
MPD LGBTQ Liaison Sgt. Guadalupe Velásquez told local outlet TMJ4 that he approached police leadership in May to request a policy change after misgendering a transgender victim.
“We don’t want to make a traumatic experience worse for a family,” she told the outlet, adding that she believes past gender discrimination has harmed the gay, lesbian and transgender community.
“It was an issue that led me to some uncomfortable conversations where some of the organizations were saying we’re not willing to work with the police department because they clearly don’t respect us,” he continued. .
The Milwaukee Police Department announced it will no longer announce the gender or race of crime victims in its public communications. Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
MPD misgendered three black transgender women who were murdered in the city last year in initial press releases, which were later cited in media reports, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The policy change applies only to information “proactively” released by the department in news releases, not in open records or crime statistics.
MPD will continue to release a person’s race and gender if they are suspected of a crime.
The policy was called a “terrible idea” by a leader of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, which is a nonpartisan group in the state dedicated to promoting open and transparent government practices.
“Does the public really not have a right to know whether minorities, for example, are disproportionately victims of crime?” Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, asked in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Don’t you have the right to know if people are killed because of their gender?”
He emphasized that the race and gender of a crime victim often matter in homicides, especially hate crimes.
Lueders added that he doesn’t know of any other police department in the state with a similar policy.
Lueders added in a comment to Fox News Digital that “it is concerning that the knee-jerk response to so many perceived problems is to block access to information.”
MPD will continue to release the gender and race of criminal suspects. Bill Glauber/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP
“The public has the right to know basic demographic information about crime victims. “The FBI tracks this, as appropriate, which means the Milwaukee Police Department is preventing the public from knowing the same information it shares with the feds,” he said.
Greg Borowski, editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, also opined that journalists must “provide a complete picture of what is happening in our community” when reporting on crime issues.
“At the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we work hard to report crime and public safety stories with context and sensitivity. To do this, we need to be able to identify trends and provide a complete picture of what is happening in our community,” he said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “This change makes it more difficult, although we remain committed to the task.
“We share the goal of not confusing transgender victims of crime. But if there is concern about the spread of misinformation, the best remedy is to ensure that only solid information is spread, not to erect new barriers that make it difficult for the public to know what is happening in their neighborhoods and throughout the community. “
The police department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional comment on the policy change.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn