POLICE
NYPD Launches First LGBTQ Recruitment Campaign
Police department looks to expand queer representation amid rocky past
BY MATT TRACY
Part of the NYPD’s latest
recruitment drive is
aimed at attracting LGBTQ
cops to the force,
marking the fi rst time the department
has launched an advertising
effort to draw queer police offi cers.
The department is embarking on
the new initiative following the rise
of the NYPD’s new LGBTQ liaison,
Sergeant Ana Arboleda, who took
over the role after the retirement of
Detective Carl Locke. In June, the
NYPD and the Gay Offi cers Action
League (GOAL) — a group made up
of queer cops — had announced a
multi-pronged plan intended to
make the department more LGBTQ
inclusive.
The recruitment effort includes
advertisements touting diversity
and promoting GOAL.
“Being a part of GOAL shows me
that the NYPD values all offi cers
equally,” reads an advertisement
featuring a quote from a police offi
cer named Offi cer Aguilar.
Another advertisement reads,
“Be the change. See the impact
you can make in the NYPD.” A
different one says, “The NYPD is
as diverse as New York is. It’s an
honor to represent my community
and city.”
Arboleda stressed that the LGBTQ
recruitment campaign is
just one piece of a broader recruitment
bid. The NYPD, she said, is
trying to recruit “all across” and
“we’re not just targeting LGBTQ
people.”
“From my point of view, obviously
we’re going to try to recruit
The NYPD’s latest hiring campaign features efforts to recruit more LGBTQ police offi cers.
where I know people would hang
out and be more prone to listen,”
she said. “Right now, anybody
that would have me talk to them
about the NYPD and my experience
gained in the police department
— I want to be there. Take it
to the streets and anywhere and
everywhere.”
While the department is not
pointing to any single motivating
factor behind the recruitment effort,
the initiative is emerging just
months after Heritage of Pride imposed
a ban on uniformed cops at
their Pride festivities through at
least 2025.
Whether the campaign will be
successful is yet to be seen — and
the department will have to contend
with its strained relationship
with the LGBTQ community dating
back to before the Stonewall
Uprising. LGBTQ individuals had
long pushed for the NYPD to issue
a formal apology for Stonewall —
and in 2019, former Commissioner
James O’Neill said the actions taken
by police at Stonewall were “discriminatory
and oppressive and for
that, I apologize.”
And yet, by the following year,
the NYPD came under fi re when a
demonstration starting at Stonewall
ended with activists suffering
multiple injuries after they were
rounded up and arrested by police
offi cers.
Those tensions boiled over again
following the Reclaim Pride Coalition’s
Queer Liberation March
in June of this year when, for the
second straight year, police offi
cers were involved in a contentious
scene at Washington Square
Park that resulted in arrests and
the mobilization of dozens of cops
who stood under the Washington
Square arch in riot gear. A helicopter
buzzed above, dozens of police
offi cers were stationed on bicycles,
and there were rows of police vehicles
on site, angering activists who
had warned police to steer clear of
their event.
“We can’t erase history,” Arboleda
DAVE HOSFORD/ FLICKR
said, referring to the NYPD’s record
of issues with the community.
“We simply can’t erase it, so we
have to acknowledge it and move
forward. We are trying to make
the department more diverse and
make a better police department
for tomorrow.”
Arboleda leads an LGBTQ advisory
panel consisting of civilians
who examine policies and provide
recommendations on how to improve
the NYPD from a community
standpoint. That group, she said,
is supportive of her recruitment efforts.
Among the department’s other
recent changes geared towards the
LGBTQ community include a policy
allowing employees to self-report
information on sexual orientation
and gender identity, the addition
of seven uniformed members to
the Community Affairs LGBTQ
Outreach Unit, the designation of
personnel who can work directly
with queer employees, expanded
training, and more LGBTQ representation
in the department’s Hate
Crime Task Force. The changes
came to fruition through a working
group led by the NYPD’s Offi ce
of Equity and Inclusion, GOAL, the
department’s LGBTQ liaison, and
others.
October 21 - November 3 , 2 6 021 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
