SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Police Department has issued new directives for its personnel when dealing with transgender and nonbinary people. The new policy was implemented on Tuesday, according to the department.
Officers are tasked with several new mandates under the policy. For instance, they must refer to transgender and nonbinary individuals by their pronouns, must allow them to choose the gender of the officer who searches them and must take them to the jail facility that aligns with the person’s preferred identity, according to a new policy.
Chief David Nisleit said the new department procedures were developed in coordination with San Diego’s LGBTQ community. He said the directives “set clear expectations for interactions between officers and transgender and gender nonbinary community members,” The San Diego Union Tribune reported.
Officers must also properly document a person’s gender identity in police reports, follow proper procedures for transporting individuals who identify as female — which includes recording the transport on body-worn cameras and notifying a dispatcher of beginning and ending mileage — and “make every reasonable attempt to recover medications for the individual.”
“Missing medications as part of an individual’s transition can be life-threatening,” the new policy states, according to the Tribune.
“Historically, many members of our LGBTQ community — particularly those who identify as transgender or nonbinary — have not been recognized or respected for who they are. That changes with this procedure,” Mayor Todd Gloria, San Diego’s first openly gay mayor, said in a news release.
“This is a much-needed and welcome change that is symbolic of the respect we should have for one another and how we create a San Diego that is truly for all of us,” Gloria said.
