Police Four Times More Likely to Stop Trans People, Reveals US Report
August 2, 2022Police are four times more likely to stop trans people than cis people, according to a new US report.
The report, based on data reported from 58 of the country’s largest law enforcement agencies, showed that trans people were stopped because of “reasonable suspicion” alone, instead of a “ specific violation or clearly unlawful behavior.” In short, that means the officers believed they had justification to suspect the person was probably committing a crime.
According to trans advocates, profiling of transgender people remains rampant across the States, despite efforts to educate police about gender diversity in recent years. Out of 3.2 million total stops last year, transgender people accounted for 4,740.
The data showed that transwomen are stopped for “reasonable suspicion” in over 45% of cases, and transmen around 43% of the time. Transwomen are routinely being targeted because of their appearance, such as “wearing sexy or fancy clothing, platform heels, big hair, or extra make-up.” More alarmingly, interactions with police officers were also more likely to lead to more drastic outcomes, with transgender people searched, handcuffed, and arrested. They were more likely to have lethal and non-lethal force used against them, revealed the report.
Alex Binsfeld, legal director at San Francisco-based advocacy group Transgender Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project, believes that officers are focusing on transgender people because they don’t fit their notions of how a woman or man should look. “It’s in effect a way to enforce Western gender binary norms on appearance, that you will be punished if you are not gender binary in your appearance,” Binsfeld told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Policing of trans folks at these disparate rates has led advocates to argue it’s a status crime.”
Transgender leaders and their allies believe the proportion of “reasonable suspicion” stops of trans people illustrates two simultaneous truths. Firstly, police often target transgender people walking down the street, even when they have not committed a crime. And secondly, a disproportionate number of trans people are sex workers, often because they struggle to find work because of discrimination during the hiring process.
“The challenge is that we’re always thought of as suspicious individuals,” added Maria Roman-Taylorson, vice president of the TransLatin@ Coalition, an advocacy group in Los Angeles. “The reality is that many trans people have been pushed to the sidelines. Society creates a system that excludes us.”
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