Microsoft Word - GayandLesbian cops (1).docx


Gay and Lesbian Cops: Diversity and Effective Policing, by Roddrick A. Colvin 

(Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc., 2012 

 

This book confronts an area of police organisation which has received scarce empirical 

research ‒ the experiences of gay and lesbian officers. Colvin’s study is a comparative 

one focusing on the UK and USA police, comprising of fieldwork in specific locales in 

both countries (Hampshire and Wiltshire in the UK, and Washington DC in the USA). 

This included a non-random survey of gay, lesbian and bisexual officers in the UK 

(n=243) and in the USA (n=66), together with qualitative interviews and focus groups 

with a smaller number of officers ‒ totalling the largest single study of gay and lesbian 

officers conducted. Situated within the broad theme of community policing, Colvin charts 

the ways the diversity of the police organisation has evolved, and the political processes 

which have structured this. Colvin’s analysis is focused principally around the roles of 

gay and lesbian police officers and their cultural competency to deal with crimes 

involving the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community (GLBT).  

In the context of previous hallowing works charting systematic homophobia 

within the police (e.g. Burke, 1993, Leinen, 1993), the book reads very optimistically in 

many sections, charting the numerous strides taken to improve the experiences of gay and 

lesbian officers in the police. Much of the book is focused on the role of specific units 

established within the police organisation to respond to crimes impacting on the GLBT 

community. These police initiatives include Lesbian and Gay Liaison Officers (LAGLOs) 

evident in many police departments in England and Wales, and Gay and Lesbian Liaison 

Units in Washington D.C. These initiatives are analysed through the police’s roles and 

effectiveness in both engaging with GLBT communities, and responding to homophobic-

orientated crimes. In both situations, the police have historically failed to establish trust 

with such communities. Colvin describes the organisational changes which have given 

rise to a much more progressive police response in both the UK and US field sites. The 

changes within the Washington D.C Police Department were attributed to several high 

profile incidents of police corruption and systematic failures to respond to hate crimes 

involving the GLBT community, where the then chief of police, Charles Ramsey 

implemented an organisational ‘shake-up’ of the department to improve its relations with 

minority communities. By contrast in the UK, Colvin attributes the police’s 

organisational changes to the McPherson Report and its provision of guidelines to 

improve relations between the police and minority communities. In the U.K field sites 

these were also supported by sexual health agencies whose evidence gathering helped 

uncover a reliable picture of needs and experiences of the GLBT community which was 

subsequently used by the police to help devise policies in these areas. As evidence of 

such progress made by the police, Colvin points to factors including higher rates of hate 

crime reporting, a greater level of trust between the police and GLBT community, and 

higher rates of crimes solved, particularly homicides.    

The overall argument of the book is a mixed picture of the genuine recognition of 

sexual diversity within the police. The success appears to be more for GLBT 

communities than for the actual officers responding to such crimes. The survey responses 

included significant numbers of respondents reporting discrimination in terms of 

employment and promotion opportunities, feelings of isolation due to their sexual 

orientation, as well as instances of receiving homophobic slurs against them from other 



officers. However, whilst these findings are woven into latter chapters in the book, 

analysis of these issues were minimal by comparison to documentations of the progress, 

and opportunities for further improvements to the sexual diversity of the police 

organisation. This was expressed both in relation to the volume of serving gay and 

lesbian officers, and the values driven through policies and procedures designed to 

investigate crime and victimisation involving GLBT communities. A particular strength 

of the book was the repeated attempt to connect the plight of gay and lesbian officers 

with other minorities within the police organisation (namely involving race, ethnicity and 

gender). Here many similarities are discovered in terms of discrimination, characterised 

by the general underrepresentation of these groups within the police.  Colvin assesses the 

status of community policing as a mechanism through which to situate and enact specific 

responses to the GLBT community, highlighting some of the critiques of this model of 

policing, most notably the implementation gap between the intentions and the actual 

practices of community policing. What Colvin does not develop however is an analysis of 

whether the rather normative construct of ‘community’ displayed and enacted within 

community policing can embrace the multitude of minority identities and experiences 

both of and within GLBT groups, including the potential outcome of this ‘community’ 

model for excluding and marginalising particular voices and experiences (see also Moran, 

2007).    

Colvin also develops the analysis of the experiences of gay and lesbian officers 

into a number of useful policy recommendations, focusing on leadership, planned change, 

recruitment and retention of police officers. At the core of Colvin’s argument is the belief 

that ‘a diverse police force will enhance an agency’s understanding of lesbian, gay, 

bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community’ (p153). Firstly, change within the police 

must be driven by senior officers in a noncoercive manner, guiding and not driving 

through reforms as a way of re-aligning rank and file officers’ beliefs and values. 

Secondly, planned change should be strategic and seek to establish a climate of change 

which accommodates diversity and inclusion. Thirdly, recruitment drives should apply 

‘population-specific strategies’ (p.164) as a way of improving the pool of possible police 

recruits. Finally, retaining officers once they arrive should be developed through 

strategies including financial compensation and incentives, training and education, 

promotion streams, mentoring and officer associations to provide support for GLBT 

officers when in post.  

Whilst supportive of the central contentions of the book regarding the changing 

diversity of the police through the experiences of gay and lesbian officers, there were 

certain features of the analysis which were less convincing. One reservation concerns the 

role of specific lesbian and gay policing units involved in delivering strategies of 

engagement and investigation of crime and victimisation within GLBT communities. As 

previously mentioned, such units are repeatedly referred to in the text as success stories in 

improving the diversity of the police and their responsiveness to crimes impacting on the 

GLBT community. Without doubting the benefits of such initiatives for the police and the 

community, this argument is difficult to make unless a comprehensive analysis of the 

attitudes and working practices of non-gay and lesbian officers is made.  No doubt the 

units can play a key role in inspiring cultural change within the police, but given recent 

research highlighting the continuation of many dominant elements of police culture 

which have been well attributed to homophobic police officer behaviour (Loftus, 2008, 



2010), the analysis would have profited from a closer connection with these bodies of 

literature. These include a resistance to ‘outsiders’ (non-white, male and heterosexual 

officers), strong officer solidarity, a masculine ethos encouraged by the perception of 

conflict and violence in policing, and shared conservative values systems both in the 

political form, but also in terms of resistance to many police reforms. Whilst 

organisational change in the police is undoubtedly complex, one such manifestation of 

the McPherson Report’s attempt to improve police responses to diversity issues has been 

a growing sense of anxiety for its traditional officer demographic ‒ namely white, 

working class male officers. This anxiety can often lead to resistance and even more 

attenuated homophobia (and racism and sexism) in certain situations, what Loftus (2008) 

argues is symptomatic of what she terms ‘white victimhood’. In short, although the 

progress charted in the book of the police’s engagement with diversity issues is 

significant, it remains to be seen whether the current austerity cuts to police budgets will 

genuinely accommodate such diversity, or rather lead to growing instances of cynicism 

and resistance at a rank and file officer level.  

 

Daniel McCarthy  

University of Surrey, UK  

 

References  

 

Burke, M (1993) Coming out of the Blue: British Police Officers Talk about their Lives in 

“The Job” as Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals, New York, Cassell Publishing  

 

Leinen, S (1993) Gay Cops, New Brunswick: NJ, Rutgers University Press  

 

Loftus, B (2008) ‘Dominant Culture Interrupted: Recognition, Resentment and the 

Politics of Change in an English Police Force’, British Journal of Criminology, Vol 48, 

756-777 

 

Loftus, B (2010) Police Culture in a Changing World, Oxford, Oxford University Press 

 

Moran, L (2007) ‘Invisible Minorities’: Challenging community and neighbourhood 

models of policing, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 7 (4), 417-441