The Milwaukee Police Department has instituted a new policy requiring that victims' races and genders not be disclosed to the public, drawing praise and criticism.
"To maintain both the privacy and dignity of crime victims, their families and loved ones, the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) will no longer proactively report out to the community victim information related to gender or race," Milwaukee Police Department officials said last week when the change went into effect last Wednesday. Suspects will still remain identified by race and gender.
An MPD spokesperson told Newsweek on Monday that it came to the decision following "careful discernment of information received both from the LGBTQIA+ community and our members," as part of a recommendation made by an internal working group after reviewing the practices of other agencies in addition to receiving community input and feedback.
"This particular topic was discussed with the [LGBTQ+] community," they said. "MPD wants to ensure the best service possible for our entire community."
The policy was spurred by one of the department's own, Sergeant Guadalupe Velasquez, who told local NBC affiliate WTMJ-TV that she approached department administration in May about a potential policy change following the misgendering of a crime victim who was transgender.
"We don't want to make a traumatic experience for a family worse," said Velasquez, who is also one of two department LGBTQ+ liaisons.
When asked if misgendering transgender victims in the past has negatively affected the LGBTQ+ community, Velasquez said it did based on her own interactions and even led to an impasse between those advocates and the department due to a lack of "respect."
Heather Hough, the MPD chief of staff, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the discussions were taking place behind the scenes spurred by conversations with the LGBTQ+ community amid a string of three Black transgender murders committed in a nine-month span.
Media releases in each instance misgendered the victims.
Juan Dominguez, a military veteran and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland, told Newsweek via phone that he commends both the LGBTQ+ community for pressing law enforcement on the issues and the MPD itself for adapting and changing its processes to further embolden the relationship between officers and the community.
"In this case, we need to be overly protective of the families of these victims," Dominguez said. "They're already going through a tremendous amount of pain and sorrow, so why do further damage?"
When asked whether law enforcement or the media and public should decide what is important in the relaying of such information, Dominguez said that is a valid concern but multiple positive actions can lead to appeasing everyone—including boosting law enforcement training for sensitive crimes.
"I'm 56. I've never felt the amount of frustration, emotion and anger [I see from the transgender community]," he said. "It's a small part of the population but certainly a very palpable kind of anger.
"Hate and bias motivates violence against transgender people, particularly transgender women of color. I think in some cases people think that folks like that are an easy target. We have to do everything we can to make sure that type of discrimination and anger has no place in our society."
The public's right to know
Some say the new policy goes too far because it undermines the public's ability to be privy to details of certain crimes and potential community trends that can become of them.
Tom Kamenick, president and founder of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, told the Sentinel that instances of misgendering victims can be remedied simply by officers striving for more accuracy.
Kamenick told Newsweek via email that while he doesn't think it's a good idea, MPD isn't breaking any law he is aware of by not identifying race or gender. He said it shouldn't be an issue moving forward as long as information is available via open records.
"Does the public really not have a right to know if minorities, for instance, are disproportionately victims of crime?" Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, told the Sentinel. "Does it not have the right to know if people are being killed because of their gender?"
Newsweek reached out to Lueders via email for additional comments.
There is also the question of journalists' role in relaying such events.
Sentinel editor Greg Borowski wrote that publishing stories about crime and public safety with context and sensitivity is aided by the ability to identify community trends "and provide a full picture of what is happening."
"We share the goal of not misgendering transgender victims of crimes," Borowski said. "But if there are concerns about bad information being released, the best remedy is to assure that only solid information is released— not to put up new barriers that make it harder for the public to know what is happening in their neighborhoods and throughout the community."
Update 09/11/23, 5:41 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from the Milwaukee Police Department.
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