The Ontario Provincial Police will no longer publicly release the gender of the suspect or a victim of a crime following a review of relevant legislation earlier this year, an agency spokesperson said.

Staff Sgt. Carolle Dionne, provincial media relations co-ordinator for the OPP, said in an interview with the Star that they revised the policy in May after going through the Police Services Act, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and the Ontario Human Rights Code.

“When you look at the Police Services Act, there’s a section that speaks specifically about a charged person,” Dionne said Monday. “In that regulation, information that we may include . . . is a name, their city of residence, their age, charges, court location, date and time. It never spoke to gender.”

Dionne said what’s important is the actual crime itself.

“It doesn’t matter what gender they identify with,” Dionne said.

Dionne referenced examples, like drivers’ licenses or employment forms, where people can choose not to identify their gender identity.

When asked why news releases since May continue to contain information about gender, Dionne says the OPP is “continuing to educate our officers,” noting that staff who have written those documents for years are reminded that there’s a new policy to enforce.

Dionne mentioned, however, that news releases for suspects at-large will still reference gender. Once that suspect has been apprehended, police won’t release their gender.

Dionne also said that for analytical reasons, data on gender will still be collected, and even though the gender will not be made public, the name of the suspect, as well as the hometown and age will be made publicly available.

Toronto police said that they were “aware” of the changes the OPP has begun to implement and that they are “looking into it,” but did not comment further on whether the service would follow a similar route in their media releases.