Building trust and cooperation between law enforcement and LGBTI community to improve response to LGBTI hate crime

ended

Studies and experience show, that incidents of hate crime based on SOGIE are in many cases not reported to authorities. On the other hand, experience also shows that in many instances police officers are not equipped with sufficient knowledge to work with victims of hate crime in this minority group. Further there is no victim support system on the side of NGOs that would enable Police and NGO sector to tackle the problem of underreporting in an effective matter, while still take personal circumstances of LGBTI people into account. With the TRUST-CO(O)P project, the project partners will set up and implement the first component of a national Victim Support System (VSS). This first component is based on enhanced cooperation between the Slovenian Police and DIC LEGEBITRA and will be implemented through training of police officers on how to deal with LGBTI victims of hate crime. Further, at central level the Centre for Research and Social Skills of the Police Academy will host and coordinate a LGBTI response team, composed of 5 selected police professionals from the centre, from the Uniformed Police Directorate and from the Criminal Police Directorate. The VSS second component, which is not part of this project, is training of NGO workers, to effectively offer support to victims with better knowledge of specifics in procedure and clear communication lines and the setting up of »LGBTI safe points«. Main target group of the TRUST-CO(O)P project will be police officers, direct beneficiaries of the action are LGBTI people, indirect beneficiaries will be NGO’s both having available a network of police LGBTI liaisons when dealing with LGBTI victims.