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Police Training Video Focuses on Treating Transgender People with Respect

CRS Police Training Video
CRS/YouTube

The latest video from the DOJ’s Community Relations Service hopes to repair the distrust between local law enforcement and the transgender community.

The Department of Justice has released a new police training video focusing entirely on respectful treatment of transgender crime victims and suspects.

The video from the DOJ's Community Relations Service dramatizes three scenarios--a traffic stop, an assault victim, and a restroom complaint--all featuring transgender actors. Each scenario details how police officers should speak about gender identity with transgender people.

"There's an enormous need to repairs this trust between law enforcement and the transgender community," police sergeant Brett Parson said in the video.

Officers from the Prince George County Police Department in Maryland participate in the video and illustrate how officers should question transgender people.

"Just simply ask, 'How would you like to be addressed?" Parson said.

The video comes at a time when the legal status of transgender people has moved into an increasingly gray area. While the federal government has issued guidance on restroom use and employment protections for transgender students and adults, many of these protections have been rolled back by recent district court decisions.

The last scenario, the restroom complaint, would likely play out very differently from state to state, where laws--such as North Carolina's HB2--criminalize transgender people using the restroom that matches their gender identity.

Watch the full video below.

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