Healing and Safer Communities

Resources

San Diego Pride has compiled resources for folks to learn more about this issue and connect with some of our community partners working on building safer communities for LGBTQ+ Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. This page is updated frequently as new reports, studies, articles, and best practices are released.

Reports and Data

National (U.S.)

2021
- Policing LGBQ People (Williams Institute, May 2021):
  - Using data from the Generations Study and the Police-Public Contact Survey, this study examines the frequency and types of police interactions experienced by LGBQ people compared with the general U.S. population. For example, LGBQ people are six times more likely than the general public to be stopped by police.
2020

- - Violence and Law Enforcement Interactions with LGBT People in the US (Williams Institute, March 2020):
    - This fact sheet reviews existing research and data from recent surveys to summarize the prevalence and extent of violence and discrimination experienced by LGBT people in the U.S.
2019

- - Failing to Protect and Serve: Police Department Policies Towards Transgender People (National Center for Transgender Equality, May 2019)
    - The purpose of this report is to promote stronger and more fair policies when it comes to police interactions with transgender people. This report focuses primarily on policies specifically governing police interactions with transgender people, including non-discrimination statements, recognition of non-binary identities in applicable policies, use of respectful communication, recording information in department forms, search procedures, transportation, placement in temporary lock-up facilities, access to medication, removal of appearance related items, training, and bathroom access. For each topic, model policies are provided that can and should be adopted by police departments in collaboration with transgender leaders in their communities.
2016

- Unjust: How The Broken Criminal Justice System Fails LGBT People (Movement Advancement Project and Center for American Progress, February 2016)
  - Unjust documents how pervasive stigma and discrimination, biased enforcement of laws, and discriminatory policing strategies mean that LGBT people are disproportionately likely to interact with law enforcement and to have their lives criminalized. LGBT people are also treated unfairly once they enter the system; the report shows how they are overrepresented in jails and prisons and face abuse while incarcerated. Finally, the report sheds light on the fact that LGBT people face unique and considerable challenges in the struggle to rebuild their lives after experiences with law enforcement—and particularly after time spent in a correctional facility.
  - Breakout Reports:

San Diego Region

2022
- San Diego County Sheriff’s Department: It Has Failed to Adequately Prevent and Respond to the Deaths of Individuals in Its Custody (California State Auditor, February 3, 2022)
- Stopped by police in San Diego? A lot depends on where you live, drive (San Diego Union-Tribune, January 16, 2022)
  - A U-T analysis shows some areas with large minority populations saw more enforcement than mostly White areas with similar crime totals.
- https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/ripa-board-report-2022.pdf
2021

- Center for Policing Equity National Justice Database Digital Report: San Diego Police Department (Center for Policing Equity, June 2021)
  - The Center for Policing Equity (CPE) partnered with the San Diego Police Department in 2019 to examine policing practices and behavior from 2016-Sept 2020 as a part of the National Justice Database (NJD) project. This study found distinct racial disparities in police contacts.
- Research Brief Documents the Shockingly Disproportionate Harms Discrimination Inflicts on LGBTQ People of Color (What We Know Project, Cornell University, June 2021)
  - A coalition of leading LGBTQ rights groups joined together to release one of the most extensive summaries to date of scholarly data on the intersection of anti-LGBTQ and racial discrimination. The research brief found overwhelming consensus among peer-reviewed and other studies that discrimination inflicts profoundly greater harm on LGBTQ people of color in a wide range of areas, including grossly disproportionate rates of: experiencing discrimination over the past year, poorer mental and physical health, greater economic insecurity, and attempts to die by suicide.
  - Of note: LGBTQ people of color are more than twice as likely to experience anti-LGBTQ discrimination when interacting with the police (24% vs. 11%)
- The Color of Authority: San Diego police, sheriff’s deputies disproportionately target minorities, data show (San Diego Union-Tribune, March 2021)
  - The San Diego Union-Tribune embarked upon an analysis of police data in 2021 that showed notable discrepancies between Black, Indigenous, & People of Color and white people in police stops and searches. Additional coverage can be found in the News Articles section below.
  - The U-T’s raw data and analysis may be found on the U-T’s GitHub repositories here
2020

- Violence and Law Enforcement Interactions with LGBT People in the US (Williams Institute, March 2020):
  - This fact sheet reviews existing research and data from recent surveys to summarize the prevalence and extent of violence and discrimination experienced by LGBT people in the U.S.
2019

- San Diego Police Scorecard (Campaign Zero and ACLU-SDIC, December 2019)
  - Campaign Zero, with funding from the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, evaluated the policing practices of San Diego Police Department (SDPD) and San Diego Sheriff’s Department (SDSD) using data on police stops, searches, use of force, and arrests obtained through public records requests. Our analysis finds evidence of discriminatory policing by both departments.
- SDPD Stop Data Shows Disparities in Treatment of LGBT, Transgender People (Voice of San Diego, December 17, 2019)
  - San Diego police are more likely to stop lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people for reasonable suspicion and more likely to handcuff them compared with cisgender people, according police stop data analyzed by Voice of San Diego and the UC San Diego Extension Center for Research.
2016

- Traffic Enforcement Through the Lens of Race: A Sequential Analysis of Post-Stop Outcomes in San Diego, California (SDSU, November 2016)
  - This report analyzed racial disparities in traffic-stop data from San Diego Police Department from 2014-2015. Conducted by researchers at SDSU, this report was presented to San Diego City Council in February 2017. The study as presented to City Council may be found here: Traffic enforcement in San Diego, California

News Articles & Op-Eds

2022

Opinion: Too much talk of de-escalation. When will law enforcement stop using deadly force? (Editorial Board, San Diego Union-Tribune, Mar. 18, 2022)
- Even as police chiefs and sheriffs embrace a variety of reform measures, tout the importance of de-escalation training, people are still dying.
Police Oversight Board’s Criminal Conviction Ban Would Buck National Trend (Voice of San Diego, Feb. 14, 2022)
- Andrea St. Julian, co-founder of the group San Diegans for Justice who’s been closely involved in the [Commission on Police Practice’s] creation, said the felony ban “seemed to come out of nowhere” — no one had asked for it publicly — and was counter to what the community wanted.
Gay SF cop gets $225K in settlement of discrimination case (Bay Area Reporter, Feb. 14, 2022)
- Three years and seven months after a gay San Francisco cop filed a lawsuit against the City of San Francisco alleging workplace harassment and discrimination, his case has finally been settled.
Opinion: No one should die in San Diego jails. The next sheriff should make sure of it. (Editorial Board, San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 4, 2022)
New report reveals who gets stopped by the police in California (Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2022)
- A new report was released about traffic and pedestrian stops by California law enforcement agencies. The data include a breakdown of race/ethnicity with troubling findings of bias.
California Police Search and Detain Trans Women at Ridiculously High Rates | them. (Them, January 4, 2022)
- A recent study of California police shows just how much police violence Black and trans people deal with.
California cops harass & humiliate Black trans people more than any other group (LGBTQ Nation, January 3, 2022)
- 18 law enforcement agencies across the state are specifically targeting trans people for invasive searches and arrests, according to a new report

2021

Another report finds deep racial disparities in Sheriff’s Department stop data – The San Diego Union-Tribune (San Diego Union-Tribune, December 10, 2021)
- Even after controlling for factors like poverty and crime, Black pedestrians were stopped by sheriff’s deputies 3.5 times as often and were four times more likely to be subjected to force when compared to White people
Torrance police’s racist texts could jeopardize many cases (Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2021)
- The Times has identified a dozen Torrance police officers who are under investigation for sharing racist and homophobic text messages and images.
Mental health teams that respond to emergencies in lieu of police will soon be available countywide (San Diego Union-Tribune, December 8, 2021)
- Since Mobile Crisis Response Teams launched in January, they have responded to more than 250 calls
A transgender woman was put in a jail cell with men and assaulted by one of them, lawsuit says (Washington Post, November 13, 2021)
- When Kristina Frost was detained on Nov. 25, 2020, she said, she was repeatedly misgendered by San Diego jail staffers despite her telling them that she was transgender and despite her driver’s license stating her gender, according to a lawsuit filed this week in a federal court in San Diego.
- Related: San Diego Sheriff’s Department rebuts claims in transgender lawsuit
Opinion: A new approach to mental health crises will save lives (San Diego Union-Tribune, November 2, 2021)
- A large number of law enforcement calls involving mental health result in injury or death.
The Learning Curve: Whatever Happened to San Diego Unified Police Reform? (Voice of San Diego, October 21, 2021)
- Many school districts slashed their police budgets or disbanded their police forces entirely following calls to defund police forces. San Diego Unified declined to follow suit but insisted it would embark on a thoughtful path of change.
What’s Changed – and What Hasn’t – for Policing in San Diego (Voice of San Diego, July 22, 2021)
- In more than a year since George Floyd’s death, San Diego police agencies have adopted changes big and small. Yet it’s also true that even this once-in-a-generation moment couldn’t carry some reform measures across the finish line.
Yet Another Report Shows San Diego Police Treat People of Color Differently (Voice of San Diego, June 17, 2021)
- Although SDPD has criticized other analyses by outside groups, the latest one mirrors the findings of those efforts, and offers a familiar picture of the disparities that people of color face when encountering law enforcement.
Report: San Diego Police Department Enforcement Practices Reveals Distinct Racial Disparities (KPBS, June 17, 2021)
- A report released by a Yale University-based research organization found distinct racial disparities in police contacts — including searches, traffic stops and arrests — over a recent five-year period in San Diego.
Queer people more likely to be stopped by police (LGBTQ Nation, June 3, 2021)
- The Williams Institute found that six percent of people who identify as something other than heterosexual have been stopped by police, compared to one percent of heterosexual people they surveyed. They also found that even when they are not driving or passengers in a stopped vehicle, non-heterosexual people are seven times more likely to be stopped than heterosexual people.
The Strong Arm of the Law; San Diego officers, deputies turn to force more often when minorities are involved. (San Diego Union-Tribune, April 11, 2021)
- A companion piece to the San Diego Union-Tribune’s data analysis.
Opinion: Black San Diegans are stopped by police at higher rates than White San Diegans. That must stop. (San Diego Union-Tribune, April 4, 2021)
- A companion Editorial piece to the San Diego Union-Tribune’s data analysis.
A Palpable Fear: Minorities describe encounters with San Diego police, sheriff’s deputies (San Diego Union-Tribune, April 4, 2021)
- A companion piece to the San Diego Union-Tribune’s data analysis.

2020

Unique Year, Familiar Results: Black San Diegans Had Far More Police Encounters (Voice of San Diego, December 29, 2020)
- While 2020 shone a harsh spotlight on police killings – the most extreme and irreversible action an officer can carry out – it also illuminated the ways police target Black San Diegans for more minor interactions that can nonetheless have a major impact on their lives. Numerous analyses and data sets gave weight to sentiments Black San Diegans have expressed in public forums and to reporters for years: that they are targeted disproportionately by police.
Commentary: Our research showed racial disparities in San Diego police stops. Our report was shelved. (San Diego Union-Tribune, June 2020)
- Commentary from the SDSU researchers that completed the 2016 study of racial disparities in traffic-stop data from San Diego Police Department from 2014-2015.

2017

SDSU Researchers Watered Down the Police Racial-Profiling Study (Voice of San Diego, May 2017)
- A long-awaited study on whether the San Diego Police Department engages in racial profiling found some evidence of bias but was ultimately restrained in its conclusions. But a draft copy of the study obtained by Voice of San Diego was far more aggressive. In the final version, harsh language was softened and some troubling findings were taken out entirely.

Best Practices

Police Department Model Policy on Interactions with Transgender People (National Center for Transgender Equality, May 2019)

Community Partners and Organizations:

The following organizations are actively engaged in accountability, transparency, and/or reform of policing in the San Diego region. San Diego Pride is proud to work with these organizations and groups:

External Resources

City of San Diego Safe Place Program
- City of San Diego LGBTQ+ Safe Place Website