Stonewalled: Police Abuse and Misconduct Against Lesbian, Gay and Transgender People in the U.S.
Survey Results
Amnesty International's (AI) report Stonewalled is the result of a national study documenting issues and patterns of police abuse and misconduct against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT), as well as individual incidents. In 2003, AI sent out a detailed questionnaire to police departments across the U.S. regarding: their interactions with LGBT individuals; training policies; responses to LGBT-related individuals; and detention procedures.
Surveys were sent to the police department in the largest city in each of the 50 states, Washington, D.C. and San Antonio (a city studied for the report but not the largest city in Texas). Twenty-nine police departments responded to Amnesty International's inquiry.
- Of those, more than half report that they...
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- Provide training on issues relating to LGBT individuals or communities (69%).
- Provide training on hate crimes against LGBT individuals (66%).
- Provide training on issues around same-sex domestic violence (83%).
- Track statistics of hate crimes based on sexual orientation (72%).
- Track statistics of hate crimes based on gender identity (59%).
- However, fewer than half report that they...
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- Train their officers as to proper strip searches of transgender individuals (31%).
- Have a policy regarding strip searches of transgender persons (24%).
- Have a policy regarding interactions with transgender people (17%).
- Have a policy on the detention of transgender people (31%).
- Have an LGBT liaison officer (38%).
- Have specific policies on same-sex domestic violence (17%).
- Have a policy or practice governing investigation of sexual assault of LGBT individuals (24%).
- Make publicly available data on complaints against individual officers (34%).
- Have an affirmative action hiring practice for LGBT individuals (14%).
