HPD will train officers to protect transgender Houstonians

Houston Police Chief Art Acevdo, from right, E'Thel Joseph, LGBT liaison for HPD, Jessica Zyrie, a transgender case manager at the Montrose Center, and Lou Weaver, transgender programs coordinator for Equality Texas, are seen during a press conference about a police training program to help officers with LGBT awareness and other issues, at the headquarters of the Houston Police Department Wednesday, April 11, 2018, in Houston. less Houston Police Chief Art Acevdo, from right, E'Thel Joseph, LGBT liaison for HPD, Jessica Zyrie, a transgender case manager at the Montrose Center, and Lou Weaver, transgender programs coordinator for Equality ... more Photo: Houston Chronicle Photo: Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close HPD will train officers to protect transgender Houstonians 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

With deadly violence against LGBTQ people at a 20-year high, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo pledged Wednesday that all Houston officers will get transgender competency training, ensuring transgender citizens will be "taken seriously and handled with respect and sensitivity."

Acevedo announced the plan at a press conference to recognize Crime Victims' Rights Week.

"Hate is on the rise in our country, and we all need to be vigilant," he said. With competency training to learn about transgender issues, he said, officers will be able to "treat people the way they want to be treated."

Texas led the nation last year in hate-related homicides involving LGBTQ people, according to a new report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.

In 2017, 52 LGBTQ people in the country were killed as a result of hate-related violence, the report says. Ten of those homicides were in Texas, and three of them happened in Houston.

The numbers are at an all-time high since the coalition started tracking these homicides 20 years ago.

At the same time, Acevedo acknowledged that anti-gay hate crimes are among the most underreported, largely because people in the LGBTQ community feel uncertain they'll be protected by law enforcement.

The Houston Police Department hasn't previously offered competency training for transgender issues, and Acevedo said that gap in training has left the door open for some mistakes.

He pointed to the December death of 26-year-old Brandi Seals, a transgender woman who was fatally shot in southeast Houston. When speaking to a local TV station, an HPD detective working the case identified Seals as a man and suggested she might have been "working the street."

"What we heard after the death of Brandi Seals here in Houston - that was very hard for all of us," said Lou Weaver, transgender programs coordinator for Equality Texas. "She was misgendered and there were lies and misinformation spread about her."

But Weaver called the police department's new policies and training "a huge win" for Houston's transgender population, with protections and recognition they haven't seen before.

Transgender people, Weaver said, "are going to know that they are seen and respected by the Houston Police Department."

It is unclear exactly what the officers' training will look like. "We're still working on the logistics," said Officer E.J. Joseph, the Houston Police Department's LGBT liaison.

But the department will be working together with LGBTQ groups including Equality Texas and the Montrose Center, Joseph said, as well as with city officials.

Houston needs to be "a welcoming city" and the Houston Police Department needs to be "a learning department," Acevedo said.

Alyson Ward writes for the Houston Chronicle. She can be reached at Alyson.Ward@chron.com.