Police aim to reach out to gay community (From Swindon Advertiser)

Police aim to reach out to gay community

8:50pm Thursday 28th August 2008

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POLICE may be forced to take the new Gay Policing Initiative on the road after no one turned up at its last meeting.

The initiative hoped to recruit members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community from Swindon after the towns Gay Pride event on August 16.

It set up a meeting at Wiltshire police’s Devizes headquarters in London Road from 6.30pm to 9pm on Tuesday.

However, despite heavily publicising the meeting – which was designed to address homophobic crime and other gay and transgender issues – only the groups 15 long-standing members showed up.

“It was a bit soul destroying,” said Sgt Simon Garrett from the community affairs and diversity team.

“We were hoping for some members of the public to show because without their feedback and experiences we can’t improve what they may want us to improve.”

The liaison role was introduced in 1999 and volunteers from within Wiltshire Police were then trained to act as a named point of contact for individuals wishing to report information on any incident concerning lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people.

At the moment there are 108 officers within Wiltshire Police that have had Gay Liaison Officer (GLO) training.

The GLOs hope to promote contact between police and the gay community, as well as provide invaluable support with the help of partner agencies such as victim support and Swindon Men’s Sexual Health Service.

Sgt Garrett said: “There may have been any number of reasons why we didn’t see any new faces.

“It could have been because it’s just after a bank holiday and people had important things to do or were returning from a long weekend away or it could be that people are reluctant to work with the police.

“Whatever the reason we are putting our heads together now to see if we can come up with an alternative way of getting the town involved – this might mean taking the initiative on the road, but we’re not sure at this point.”

To get in contact with your local Gay Liaison Officer, call 0845 408 7000 and ask for a GLO contact.

You can call Sgt Simon Garrett on 01380 734055 or email simon.

garret@wiltshire.pnn. police.uk.

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