NYPD Launches Initiative In Attempt To Recruit More LGBTQ+ Individuals

LGBTQ+ individuals seeking to join the New York Police Department (NYPD) can now disclose their sexual orientation in personnel records.

The initiative launched March 7 and seems to be the first of its kind in the country. It was first suggested by the NYPD’s Gay Officers Action League (GOAL)

“The feeling at GOAL was if they don’t count you, then you don’t count,” Downey said to New York Daily News.

“When you’re making change here, when you’re standing up here, you also by extension make things better in other agencies. You make things better for people that are not sure about their sexual identity or weren’t open to sharing it in the workspace.”

The NYPD has historically conflicted with the LGBTQ+ community. It wasn’t until 1980 when the New York Court of Appeals rule in New York v. Onofre to abolish the laws that criminalized consenting “homosexual conduct between adults.”

Before this, LGBTQ+ individuals were arrested. The pride parades that we know today were sparked by the Stonewall Inn Riots of 1969, in which a police raid and police harrassment turned violent and ended up sparking a nationwide gay rights movement.

Since then, there has been conflict between the LGBTQ+ community and police at Pride Parades, protests and other events.

The disclosure is confidential and voluntary, NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner for Equity and Inclusion told New York Daily News. “I think it sends a message to the community that we are an inclusive police department, one that is accepting of whoever it is that may come to us,” she said.