The Milwaukee Police Department will no longer list the race or gender of crime victims in public broadcasts after previous incidents of transgender crime victims being misgendered.
“It’s a way to preserve the dignity and privacy of all victims,” said Heather Hough, chief of staff for the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) last week, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “MPD wants to ensure the best service for our entire community.”
The announcement was made last Wednesday after the department held discussions with members of the LGBTQ community, according to Hough.
Milwaukee is a Democratic stronghold in the state and has been led by a Democratic mayor since 1960.
MPD LGBTQ Relations Sgt. Guadalupe Velasquez told local channel TMJ4 that she reached out to police leadership in May for policy changes after misgendering a transgender victim.
“We don’t want to worsen a traumatic experience for a family,” he told the outlet, adding that he believes misgendered individuals in the past have hurt the gay, lesbian and transgender community.
“It’s a topic that leads to some uncomfortable conversations for me where some organizations are like, we’re not willing to work with the police department because obviously, you don’t respect us,” he continued. .
The Milwaukee Police Department announced that it will no longer announce the gender or race of crime victims in public broadcasts. Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
MPD misgendered the three Black transgender women killed in the city last year in an initial press release — which was later cited in media reports — according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The policy change only applies to information released “proactively” by the department in press releases, not in open records or crime statistics.
MPD will still release a person’s race and gender if they are suspected of committing a crime.
The policy was labeled a “terrible idea” by a leader of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan group in the state dedicated to promoting transparent and open government practices.
“Do people really have no 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. “Doesn’t it have a right to know if people are killed because of their gender?”
He pointed out that the race and gender of crime victims often matter in homicides, especially for hate crimes.
Lueders added that he is not aware of any other police department in the state that has a similar policy.
Lueders added in comments to Fox News Digital that “it is troubling that the hasty response to many perceived problems is to restrict 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, so that means the Milwaukee Police Department is preventing the public from knowing the same information it shared with the feds,” he said.
Greg Borowski, editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, also noted that reporters need to “give a full picture of what’s going on in our community” when reporting on crime issues.
“At the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we take great care to report stories about crime and public safety with context and sensitivity. To do this, we need to be able to identify trends and provide a full picture of what’s happening in our community,” he said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “These changes make it more difficult, although we remain committed to the task.
“We share the goal of not misgendering transgender crime victims. But if there’s concern about bad information being released, the best way is to make sure that only solid information is released — not to put up new barriers that make it harder for people to know what’s 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: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
