LGBTIQ Tasmanians and Tasmania Police

Tasmania Police place much emphasis on its capacity to engage and work with Tasmanians from a range of backgrounds, including those Tasmanians that identify as sexuality and/or gender diverse. The close working relationship between Tasmania Police and LGBTIQ1 Tasmanians (and their community organisations) has fundamentally changed since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1997. However, a few matters remain to be resolved, and it is our hope that the evidence documented in this report will empower Tasmania Police, along with LGBTIQ communities, to address the remaining concerns.

As with many policing organisations, Tasmanian Police have engaged LGBTIQ communities in Tasmania to create bespoke training opportunities to build the cultural capability of its officers. Tasmania Police has also created a LGBTI Liaison Officer program to assist community members and other Tasmania Police officers when this training is insufficient to resolve unique issues faced by LGBTIQ Tasmanians, as well as LGBTIQ police officers. These innovations in practice have been important in changing the perception of, and trust in, Tasmania Police.

As we note in the following pages, based on the evidence collected in this project, we present 12 recommendations for policy and practice development and/or enhancement. Many of these recommendations are based on feedback from LGBTIQ Tasmanians as well as Tasmania Police officers. Of critical importance to both groups was the preparedness for Tasmanian Police officers to respectfully work with gender diverse Tasmanians. Officers, along with community members, believed that while Tasmania Police have changed the story in relation to sexuality diversity, the same cannot be said for gender diversity. Tasmania Police officers and LGBTIQ Tasmanians offered suggestions on what needs to happen to change the story for gender diverse Tasmanians, including the appropriate and respectful use of pronouns, considered deployment of staff for strip searches, and displays of visible support (such as the rainbow lapel pins), In this section we provide an overview of the most critical Issues Identified in the research before offering our 12 recommendations..