Policing Race, Gender, and Sex: A Review of Law Enforcement Policies

Abstract

Growing attention to the unique ways in which women of color’s bodies are racially profiled and policed has prompted questions concerning gender-specific impacts of law enforcement practices. Arrest statistics, patterns of enforcement, and high-profile cases of police violence against Black women and other women of color suggest that gaps in policy and implementation will disproportionately affect women of color. In the current research, the policies of 36 police departments across the country were examined to ascertain the degree to which they address profiling, police sexual misconduct, and other gendered experiences of policing. The findings reveal considerable divergence in attention to regulating police behavior in the context of interactions with women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, exposing important gaps in police policies, and highlight a need for further research and action specifically focused on intersectional factors at play in the context of policing women’s bodies.

Keywords:

• racial profiling
• police violence
• police misconduct
• gender
• sexuality

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Open Society Foundations for this research and the assistance of the Center for Policing Equity and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Notes

Throughout this article the terms “woman” or “women” includes both transgender and non-transgender women and women of all sexual orientations.

Brian A. Reaves, Local Police Departments, 2013: Personnel, Policies, and Practices, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, NCJ 248677, Appendix Table 2 (May 2015).

The term gender-nonconforming is used to describe individuals who may not identify as transgender but whose actual or perceived gender identity or expression is perceived to not be the same as the gender assigned at birth.

The term “mid-sized” is used to describe departments with more than 1,000 but fewer than 5,000 officers on the force. Brian A. Reaves, Local Police Departments, 2013: Personnel, Policies, and Practices, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, NCJ 248677, Appendix Table 2 (May 2015).

Together, responding departments and departments for which policies were publicly available make up the majority of the top 30 police departments by number of officers in the country and a significant proportion of the top 50 police departments in the country. Among the top 30 police departments in the country, the following departments’ policies are not readily publicly available: Dallas, Texas; Houston, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; Miami-Dade, Florida; Detroit, Michigan; Memphis, Tennessee; Suffolk County, New York; San Antonio, Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Forth Worth, Texas. One potential avenue for future research could include submitting freedom of information law requests for the policies of these departments.

Where survey responses were concerned, in an abundance of caution, we elected to defer to departmental interpretation of their policies on sexual misconduct rather than substitute our own based on the language of the policy.

Departments prohibiting profiling based on gender, sexual orientation, or both included Minneapolis, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Honolulu, Hawaii; Atlanta, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; and Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Departments prohibiting profiling based on gender identity or expression included Washington, DC; Seattle, Washington; New York City, New York; Los Angeles, California; and San Francisco, California.

Boston Police Department Rules and Procedures. Rule 113A. Bias Free Policing Policy.

Louisville Metro Police Department Standard Operating Procedures. SOP 8.8. Biased Law Enforcement Practices.

Tampa Police Department Standard Operating Procedures 536.1. Profiling.

New York State Assembly Bill 3007B, New York State Senate Bill 2007B, signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo on April 13, 2015.

NYPD Interim Order 21, June 6, 2014.

ibid.

San Francisco Police Department Bulletin 15-019.

PACHA, Resolution on Ending Federal and State HIV-Specific Criminal Laws, Prosecutions, and Civil Commitments, available at http://hivlawandpolicy.org/resources/resolution-ending-federal-and-state-hiv-specific-criminal-laws-prosecutions-and-civil.

President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015. Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Recommendation 2.12. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Richmond Police Department General Order 1-1.

Fayetteville Police Department Written Directives and Operating Procedures, 5.6.0, Sexual, Ethnic, Racial or Religious Harassment.

Montgomery County Policy on Sexual Harassment, on file with author.

General Order 201-26, Metropolitan Police Department.

Louisville, Kentucky, Police Department Standard Operating Procedure 5.1.

Cleveland police officer accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Gatlinburg cabin, August 7, 2015, available at http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/breakingnews/story/2015/aug/07/cleveland-police-rocked-yet-another-sexual-allegation/318733/.

Cleveland Police Department General Orders, 5-MM Sexual Misconduct.

Louisville, Kentucky, Police Department Standard Operating Procedure 8.30.

Chicago Police Department General Order G02-01-03; Louisville Police Department Standard Operating Procedure 8.47.

New Orleans Police Department Policy 402, available at http://getyrrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/New-Orleans-LA.pdf.

Boston Police Department, Police Commissioner’s Special Order Number SO 14-024, 07/22/2014.

New York City Police Department Patrol Guide Provisions 208-05 and 210-08.

Chicago Police Department General Order G02-01-03.

Boston Police Department Rules and Procedures, Rule 315.

Scottsdale Police Department Operations Orders DO 8244.

Seattle Police Department Manual 8.400.

Louisville Police Department Standard Operating Procedure 9.1.

Cincinnati Police Department Procedure Manual 12.545.

Albuquerque Police Department Procedural Orders 2.52.

Phoenix Operations Order 1.5.

Minneapolis, MN 5-314.02 USE OF CONDUCTED ENERGY DEVICES (CED)–SUBJECT FACTORS (10/01/10).

Milwaukee SOP 2007-05.

U.S. Department of Justice, Guidance for Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Regarding the Use of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, National Origin, Religion, Sexual Orientation, or Gender Identity, December 2014. Unfortunately, the guidance provides for broad exceptions, including in the context of immigration enforcement and law enforcement activities relating to national security.

United States Congress. End Racial Profiling Act of 2015. 114th Cong. H.R. 1933. S. 1038. Washington: GPO, 2015.

United States of America v. City of New Orleans, 12 cv. 1924, Consent Decree Regarding the New Orleans Police Department at ¶186 (E.D.La July 24, 2012).

President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015. Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Recommendation 2.13. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015. Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Recommendation 2.13.3. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015. Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Recommendation 2.13.1-2. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015. Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Recommendation 2.12. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee on the Second and Third U.S. Reports to the Committee (2006), Concluding Observation and Recommendation No. 30.