The police raids on The Stonewall Inn in New York and the screening of Andy Warhol’s “Lonesome Cowboys” in Atlanta in 1969 were turning points in the gay rights movement, but also highlighted the LGBTQ+ community’s fraught relationship with law enforcement.
According to a 2022 study from Policing the Rainbow, 56.6 percent of LGBTQ+ people found their most recent encounter with the police to be unfair, and 58.6 percent believe the police do not do a good job responding to local issues. In response to this history, more police departments across the country have introduced LGBTQ+ liaison roles.
Officer Brandon White was announced as the Chamblee Police Department’s LGBTQ+ liaison in June. When he joined the force two years ago, White became aware of the significant LGBTQ+ population in the city and the number of LGBTQ+ officers on the force.
“And I noticed that there wasn’t a specific person that you can actually talk to about different resources available within and outside of the department,” White said. “Someone who was available for community engagement and needs when it came to the LGBTQ+ [community].”
White himself was a victim of a hate crime in 2012, where he was attacked by a group of men for being gay. His case was the first in the state to be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office under the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a federal law passed in 2009 after the murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. in 1998.
After White joined the force and learned about Out to Protect, an organization that provides professional development regarding the LGBTQ+ community to law enforcement, he knew that he wanted to introduce a liaison role to the department.
“We’ve all ran into those experiences [with law enforcement] where they were not as positive as we’d hoped, and just having someone that can help show that that’s not our goal [is impactful],” he said. “Our goal is to ensure that all communities are safe, all communities are included.”
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In preparation for the role, White attended the three-day LGBTQ+ Law Enforcement Liaison Academy. This course, available to both law enforcement and civilians, teaches students to develop communication pathways with the LGBTQ+ community, identify people and organizations to partner with, create community events designed to build trust between law enforcement and the LGBTQ+ community, and demonstrate how to identify a hate crime and develop awareness training.
According to the HRC Municipal Equality Index, LGBTQ+ police liaisons “can help ensure that bias-motivated crimes are properly investigated and reported, victims are not misgendered, and the community is kept abreast of the investigation’s process.”
While White acts as a point of contact, he’s also responsible for training other officers to ensure “they understand the needs of the LGBTQ+ community and the appropriate ways to interact.”
White has worked with other LGBTQ+ liaisons like Officer Brandon Hayes at the Atlanta Police Department and Sergeant Kevin Turner at the South Fulton Police Department and looks forward to developing more partnerships with other departments and organizations.
