Linda Dominguez

Last month, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the national ACLU filed a lawsuit against the NYPD on behalf of Linda Dominguez, a transgender woman who was arrested by the NYPD and prosecuted by the Bronx District Attorney's office for “false personation” because she provided the NYPD with both her new legal name (pursuant to a legal name change) and her old name she was given at birth. While she was in their custody, police officers harassed and cruelly mocked Linda because she is transgender.

My office, The Bronx Defenders, represented Linda in the underlying criminal case. As the LGBTQ client specialist at The Bronx Defenders, I represent many of the hundreds of transgender clients who are arrested and prosecuted in the Bronx every year. What Linda experienced was, unfortunately, the norm for the NYPD, but what was uncommon about Linda was her willingness to move forward with a lawsuit to hold the police accountable.

Quite frankly, it is difficult to overstate the extent to which transgender people are subjected to mockery, humiliation and violence at the hands of the police. In the five years, I've worked as a defender, I have never met a transgender client who was not abused or harassed in some way by the NYPD during the process of their arrest.

There's Kimberly, who begged not to be placed in a holding cell with men after her arrest, and was only removed when she tried to hang herself. Or Diamond, who was so severely injured by officers during her arrest that she had to get stitches at the hospital before being brought before a judge. The officers assaulting Diamond called her derogatory names targeting her gender identity and sexual orientation. Even when transgender people have not been arrested, but go to the NYPD seeking help, what we hear from our clients is that they are routinely ignored, and their complaints dismissed.

This reality saddens but does not surprise me, not only because of my experience representing transgender clients (ours is the only public defender office in the country with an LGBTQ practice), but also because of my experience conducting training for police officers under a mandate to ensure that they respect transgender people who are in their custody.

Officer training was mandated in 2012 by amendments to the NYPD's patrol guide, a set of rules officers must abide by in doing their jobs. In sum, the protocols prohibit police officers from using disrespectful remarks regarding a person's gender identity, using incorrect names and pronouns, searching people for the purpose of determining their gender, and holding transgender people in cells inconsistent with their gender identity. The new guidance was hard-fought by the LGBTQ community and considered a big win at the time.

But as I soon learned, “training” meant trying to get the attention of two dozen or so police officers during a 20-minute roll call slot in which most were there for the pizza I offered. Those who weren't openly hostile just couldn't wrap their heads around the idea of treating a transgender woman as a woman — or even a human being. They used words such as a “fake woman with penis,” or “it,” and competed to see who was the most transphobic and macho. As a gender nonconforming person myself, I left the precinct shaken and demoralized.

That precinct was one of only six out of 77 to even hold a training, as the New York Inspector General reported in 2017. The report, cited in the ACLU/NYCLU lawsuit, criticized the lack of adequate training as well as a failure to track all LGBTQ-related complaints alleging bias, including violations of the revised patrol guide protocols. Little wonder, then, that no allegations of LGBTQ bias have been substantiated since the NYPD began reporting on this category in 2014.

There is no question that the NYPD has been flagrantly ignoring their own regulations, and it is way past time that something is done about it to hold them accountable. The lawsuit on behalf of Linda Dominguez is a first step. What else can be done?

The city's district attorneys should refuse to allow charges of “false personation,” which are prohibited under the 2012 protocols; in addition, they should scrutinize charges brought against transgender people. Transgender women of color, are especially vulnerable to entanglement in the criminal justice system, and district attorneys should consider that in their prosecution. Judges, for their part, should continue to ensure that transgender people are respected in the courtrooms.

Criminal defense attorneys, too, can be part of the solution, by becoming familiar with the patrol guide protocols in addition to other laws protecting the transgender community, such as New York City's Human Rights Law. They should explain to their transgender clients the remedies that are available when they have experienced abuse, harassment or discrimination by police officers, including filing CCRB complaints, filing complaints with the NYC Commission on Human Rights, and filing civil rights lawsuits.

Ultimately, though, it will take the hard work of culture change within the police department to make this behavior unacceptable. The NYPD can march in Pride Parades, and they can set up programs through the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL), but they will not gain the trust of the transgender community until they take it on themselves to end the violent transphobia that runs rampant within the department.

Deborah Lolai is staff attorney and LGBTQ client specialist for The Bronx Defenders.