Bias Training Returns
GLOV prepares for a second round of police training later this month
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is seeking assistance from Gays and Lesbian Opposing Violence (GLOV) in providing information to officers training to work among MPD’s Special Liaison Units (SLU), including the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU).
GLOV members met on Thursday, May 27, at The Center, metro D.C.’s LGBT community center and of which GLOV is a program, to discuss their agenda for the upcoming three-hour slot they’ve been assigned on Friday, June 18. According to SLU Sgt. Carlos Mejia, the training is slated for June 16 to 18.
”We’d like to get a victim of a bias crime to come and give a brief statement about the incident, about the effect on their life, and about their interaction with the police department,” GLOV co-chair Joe Montoni said, speaking to other members. ”I think that would be pretty impactful.”
Montoni said GLOV would also like to review the documentation MPD has published on factors that officers should consider when responding to a crime scene, with regard to identifying a bias crime. He told attendees that GLOV should provide updates for those guidelines if necessary.
”Then we’d like to do just the basic 101s of how you properly document a suspected bias crime. We’re going to follow that with several different case studies of incidents that have been responded to, that were handled, — we think properly — and others where information is missing and they’re still classified as ‘pending.”’
According to Montoni, GLOV will be the final group to provide guidance to officers during the training on June 18.
Montoni said GLOV would like members of the Department of Justice to join the GLOV session, providing MPD personnel precise information on what should be collected during an investigation that may be prosecuted as a bias crime.
”I was very upfront that we did not want this to be a takeover of DOJ at the session,” Montoni told the other five GLOV members at the meeting, one participating via conference call.
The advance notice of the training appears to be an improvement in communication between MPD and GLOV. In 2009, GLOV was given only three days to prep for a similar training seminar.
For more info on GLOV, visit glovdc.org.
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