‘Make GLLOs full time’
Victorian GLLOs strengthened their contacts with the Washington DC police department Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit last week, when a representative visited Melbourne.
Acting Lieutenant Brett Parson, who heads the specialist liaison units in Washington, was invited by Sergeant Scott Davis after the pair met at the 12th international conference of gay and lesbian police in the US last year.
When Parson, a former narcotics chief, was first given the role in 2001 he wanted to do real policing and investigate crimes in and against the gay community.
-œI didn’t want to be the gay poster child for the Washington DC police. I wanted to be a cop’s cop, he said.
-œI said, -˜I’m not going into this unit to pass out brochures, swat gay men on their asses and say that it’s OK to be gay. We’re going to arrest people for domestic violence, for dealing drugs and doing drugs, we’re going to go after people who are doing fraudulent activity in the gay community, as well as hate crimes’.
His units, which now include specialist liaison officers for the Latino, Asian and deaf communities, assist local police during investigations -” but not replace them -” when a crime appears to be related to a niche community.
-œIf you ask cops about community policing, most see it as touchy-feely, handing out brochures, sing Kumbaya, never seen on the street responding to a call. That’s what they planned on doing. I won’t say it was an utter failure, but quite honestly it wasn’t recognised as being successful.
Nobody could accuse the GLLU of being unsuccessful now. More than 100 officers applied to join the last time a vacancy was announced.
-œIn the end, what I would like to see is these units not exist, Parson said. -œI would like to see a police department where everybody is capable of handling whatever group it is and that we treat everyone with professionalism, respect and dignity and understand their cultures.
Davis and Parson had an opportunity to discuss their different roles within their respective forces. Davis is one of 20 GLLOs in Victoria Police. The organisation also has one full-time GLLO, Gabrielle Tyacke.
-œThe role is a portfolio so they are operational police at police stations and provide links to the gay and lesbian community from there. Some months they could spend no time at all, and some months they could be spending up to six hours, Davis said.
As the full-time GLLO, Tyacke is also charged with bridging the understanding gap between the gay and lesbian community and the police, educating the groups about each other.
