Good morning. My name is Pedro Julio Serrano and I’m the founder and president of Puerto Rico Para Todes (Puerto Rico For All), a nonprofit organization that works to ensure that LGBTQ+ people are treated equally under the law. I also work as Development Manager of Waves Ahead Puerto Rico and a member of a united front of more than 60 organizations that are advocating for the government to instrument equity for LGBTQ+ people in Puerto Rico.
I come before you today, honorable Judge Francisco Besosa, to address this honorable court on important matters on the implementation of the Agreement for the Sustainable Reform of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau.
For many years, we have been trying to work with the Puerto Rico Police Department and the Technical Compliance Advisor (TCA) on the Puerto Rico Police Bureau’s implementation of the Agreement for the Sustainable Reform of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau.
During the past year, we have been active members, at our request, of the United Against Hate (UAH) initiative that was started by the United States Attorney’s Office of the District of Puerto Rico. It all started by the frustration of many years of not being able to continue the work to make sure that the reform of the Police Department complies with the safeguarding of the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people in Puerto Rico.
Since then, we’ve had several meetings with the understanding that after this Pride season, we will continue our scheduled meetings to continue to work on the issues surrounding the Police and the LGBTQ+ community in Puerto Rico.
As part of those efforts, we were just notified this week, that an LGBTQ+ liaison has been named at the Public Security Department led by Alexis Torres. This is a welcomed starting point to make sure that we have a holistic approach in dealing with cases involving LGBTQ+ people in the respective agencies affiliated to this department, including the Police.
Even though there is a united front, as part of the UAH initiative, of several federal and statewide agencies, the Police Chief has never participated. We’ve had executive individuals from the federal agencies, such as FBI, US Attorney’s Office, HSI, US Marshalls and state agencies, such as Department of Justice, Police Reform Office, Public Security Department, Corrections Department and the TCA.
Even though, the lines of communications are open, the plan to move forward is still on the fence. Please let me bring to your attention the following issues:
• We proposed the creation of an LBGTQ+ working group per agency, both state and federal, to address specific issues per agency, including, but not limited to, the creation and offering of training; reviews of protocols and standards; discussion and follow-up on specific aspects of each agency. It hasn’t happened.
• We proposed a calendar of work meetings to address specific issues per agency, both state and federal. It has not been issued.
• We asked for a calendar of trainings on LGBTQ+ issues per agency, both state and federal and which personnel has been trained. It has not been materialized.
• We asked for a calendar to review the protocols and standards on LGBTQ+ issues in each agency, both state and federal. It has not been created.
• We asked that a liaison position with the LGBTQ+ community be created in each agency or that a diversity, equity and inclusion committee be instituted that can address the needs of our communities. Only the Public Security Department has created such position and only it was done a few days ago.
• We asked to know how statistics and identities of LGBTQ+ people are classified, collected and used in each agency.Our request hasn’t been answered.
• We asked to establish a direct line of communication with the Office of the Federal Monitor of the Police Reform to outline strategies for compliance with the parameters of the reform regarding LGBTQ+ issues. It hasn’t happened.
• We asked to create an independent and citizen entity to evaluate protocols, training, complaints and situations that occur around LGBTQ+ people in the Police Department and the Corrections Department. It is being evaluated.
• We asked for ongoing meetings with the agency and LGBTQ+ members. It hasn’t happened.
• We asked to the Police General Order 624, which is from April 2018, to be updated. It hasn’t been reviewed.
• We asked to know how reports on hate crimes and crimes against LGBTQ+ people are being conducted by the Police.We have no answer.
While all of this is still on the table, with no plan to move forward; we are still being subjected to the violation of our civil rights.
In March, there were two interventions with undercover agents in Ocean Park and Levittown. They targeted gay and bisexual men, arrested them and cited them to appear at a district court at a latter date. The men that were intervened in Levittown appeared in court and all the cases were dismissed by the judge because of the improper citation by Police officers, as well as fragrant abuses. The cases in Ocean Park didn’t get to see a judge because the Police Department decided not to show up because of what transpired before where the cases were dismissed.
Please let me showcase what happens in these interventions: the Police uses goodlooking undercover agents, dressed in shorts and tight shirts, to lure unsuspected men into engaging with them. Once they interact, they arrest them and violate their civil rights. This practice was discontinued since 2016 and it was restarted earlier this year. After a discussion, with federal and state executives in attendance at a UAH meeting, Secretary Torres issued an order for these interventions to be stopped.
This past weekend, a trans tourist was brutally attacked in Santurce. Not only she was robbed, but also, she was sexually assaulted. We found out about it through the press, and we contacted the officials. She decided not to continue pursuing the case because of the language barriers, but also because she felt revictimized and not heard when she asked that she had a rape kit performed without the presence of police officers. Her request was not respected, and she declined medical care and declined to continue to pursue justice in her case. This is why we need for Police to work with our organizations to make sure that the survivors can receive proper, sensible and respectful care once they’re targets of crime and violence.
We continue to be revictimized by the erroneous reports when bodies of trans and gender nonconforming fatal victims of crimes are identified without recognizing identities. The protocol dictates that the Police report states that a PERSON was found without identifying the gender, but the Police continues to state that “a man with woman’s clothes” was found.
Adding salt to the injury, they use the person’s deadname to identify the victim, instead of using the name by which the person identified and the correct pronouns. This shows that there is an inadequate handling of trans and non-binary people by the police.
Another mishandling of a hate crime was the murder of Roberto García. His death was not reported as an LGBTQ+ person, as it is required, and a previous conviction of Garcia as a sex offender was reported to the press when it had nothing to do with his murder or the motive given by his killer. This is unacceptable.
To compound all this, we are still waiting to hear back from the Police about the status of these recent killings of LGBTQ+ people: Alexa, Kevin Fret, Eddie Xavier Morales Rodríguez, Uvita/Chanel Pérez Ortiz, Luis Angel Díaz Castro, Africa Parrilla and Angel Javier García. We have information about several killings that happened at the rest stop near the Monumento al Jíbaro where the Police identified a gang committing these murders, but nothing has happened since then.
One of our major frustrations is that when we have spoken to theTCA and the representative of the US Department of Justice about all of this, the answer is always the same: we must wait until each case is closed to monitor how the Police acted and to evaluate the use or misuse of their protocols. While this might be the way it has been conceptualized, in practical terms, this is unacceptable and useless. Our lives are in danger. We need an active monitor office so we can effect change. We need actions now, not after our rights are violated.
We are willing and able to continue to try to work with the Police to make sure that the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people are respected, but also that the reform is complete with the safeguard that our rights are going to be protected and that we can, once again, trust the Police. We are willing and able. We need the same commitment from the TCA and the Police.
Pedro Julio Serrano 