THE SUB GROUPS: CONSISTENCY OF SERVICE

The Consistency of Service (CSS) sub group works to ensure that the Metropolitan Police Service can provide a fair, sensitive and responsive service to the LGBT community. In particular, there is a need to develop training and share best practice in the police service.

WHAT WE DO

LGBT Liaison Officers

We believe that LGBT Liaison Officers are crucial to a good relationship between the police service and our communities. They play an important role in building confidence with our community through proactive work. This includes raising the profile of homophobic crimes in their local boroughs. Through their work, we can identify good practice and share it with the rest of the police service.

The Advisory Group has been closely involved in the creation and development of LGBT Liaison Officers. We work to support the LGBT Liaison Officers. We have produced a general job description, personal specifications and recruitment guidelines.

Non-police reporting

Reporting a homophobic incident directly to the police can still feel daunting even though every borough now has a dedicated Community Safety Unit. We continue to be involved in the development of third-party and non-police reporting forms.

Family Liaison

The CSS sub group has members on the Family Liaison Officer Steering Group, which is responsible for the strategy for the Family Liaison Officer programme. LGBT advisors on the group have been able to ensure that all Family Liaison Officers have a basic knowledge of LGBT issues for when they come to deal with a member of our community.

LATEST PROJECTS

LGBT Liaison Officers

We have continued to build on our work regarding LGBT Liaison Officers (LGBT LOs). We now have an officer at Scotland Yard who has worked hard to ensure he knows who all the officers are and to keep track of their work. This is not an easy task as LGBT LOs are often on the move and the work they undertake is on top of their main duties. We are hoping to make a serious case to the Territorial Police, who are now responsible for LGBT LOs, that they need much more time and support.

Hate Crimes

The police have now established a document that records the minimum standards on how hate crimes are to be handled. It is an extensive document and we have given it a great deal of attention and made several crucial additions and changes. We are in the throes of exploring how we might produce a leaflet, possibly with the Crown Prosecution Service, that would explain in very simple terms to a victim what they can expect if they report a hate crime and who they can go to if they don't get the service they are entitled to.

Gaining useful homophobic crime figures has been a problem. We are in the process of working with MPS statisticians to get figures on a routine basis and to be able to extract more useful information from them. This initiative reflects the LGBT AG's belief that information is the cornerstone of accountability and good practice. It is an initiative that builds on the MPS/Home Office Understanding and Responding to Hate Crime project. It also seeks to develop and refine that initiative. We await the decision of the MPS on the provision of the data.

The Territorial Police will also be responsible for the Community Safety Units and we will need to work closely with them to make sure that they are the centres of excellence that they set out to be. We are continuing the process of raising concerns about hate/murder lyrics from some musicians and offensive websites with the Crown Prosecution Service and we await their ruling on them.

The Metropolitan Police Authority has a new chair, and is soon to have a new Equality Officer. We are confident this means we will have a closer, more effective link with the Authority and be able to contribute to changes stemming from the Morris report and the report following the BBC programme The Secret Policeman.

Going forward we recognise that despite out achievements and changes we must both monitor our changes and examine new areas. Whilst we welcome the fact that the MPS are changing for the better in some areas, we see it as our job to ensure that changes are implemented across the whole service. We will continue to challenge homophobia and tackle the poor service that so many of the LGBT community experience from the MPS.

Back to sub groups