Philly Leader

People have the right to identify themselves as transgender and/or non-binary to a police officer. Philadelphia Police Officers must use a person’s chosen name and pronouns throughout the interaction. Officers have rules for how officers write down trans or non-binary people’s information:

• An officer must write down the person’s chosen name on Department documents.
• Additionally, officers will ask to see government-issued identification (ID) and must write down the person’s name and gender as it appears on the ID on any Department documents.
• If no ID is available, an officer will record a person’s name and gender based on how they identify themselves.

These rules apply to when an officer is talking with the trans or non-binary person as a victim or witness to a crime. They also apply when an officer stops a person to investigate a crime.

If an officer stops a person and needs to search them, transgender and non-binary people can ask for an officer of the same gender. Officers may not always follow this request if there is no other officer available to assist. Any officer can search the person if the officer believes it’s best to do an immediate search for safety. Before the search, trans and non-binary people can ask to remove any prosthetics, clothing, or wigs.

If an officer is going to make an arrest, they must take trans and non-binary people to the nearest medical center before taking them into custody. This is to address the person’s immediate medical needs including hormone therapy. Trans and non-binary people are held in a single cell, apart from other people in custody.

When giving information to the media, officers must use a person’s chosen name and pronouns. This is true whether the trans and non-binary individual is a suspect, arrestee, witness, victim or has died as a result of a crime.

These rules are listed further in Police Directive 4.15.

Original source can be found here.