Fla. cops receive training on transgender issues

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The St. Petersburg Police Department is launching a new transgender sensitivity training program.

The training comes two months after a Tampa transgender woman's murder - and law enforcement's handling of it - captured national attention.

After 25-year-old India Clarke's body was found in a Tampa park July 21, law enforcement identified her by the name and gender she was born with even though she had identified as female for years. Backlash from across the country followed, sparking a discussion about how law enforcement handles the identities of transgender people.

Officers can't rely on anatomy or what is on a person's driver's license to identify them and generally they should use pronouns based on a person's outward appearance - or avoid them if unsure.

According to St. Petersburg's new three-page police released by Chief Anthony Holloway last week, "...the individual shall be treated in accordance with their expressed gender," reports CBS affiliate WTSP.

"For lack of a better word there's a lot of ignorance because they don't understand what the whole population consists of ....so I think this is a good way to try and get everyone on the same page," Lt. Markus Hughes, the department's LGBTQ liaison, told WTSP.

The supervisors who went through the two hour training session will then start training the rest of the department, reports the station.

Nationally, transgender women, especially those of color, tend to face disproportionate impacts when it comes to violence and homicide, according to the Anti-Violence project.

"If you just look at the percentages of how many of them are attacked versus the general population, yeah, they are targeted for being who they are," Hughes said.