LGBT+ network

Our LGBT+ network is made up of passionate police officers, staff and volunteers who meet several times a year to discuss all aspects of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender life, both at work and in our communities.

We work within the organisation and with our partner agencies to raise awareness of LGBT+ issues and tackle issues of concern, including hate crime, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.

We are very much part of the community and work with and for all our LGBT+ communities. You will see us at key LGBT+ events locally, including PRIDE events.

We are an excellent and inclusive place to work for LGBT+ people and know how important it is that our police force represents the communities it serves. Some examples of the work we are doing, includes:

We recently launched rainbow lanyards for our officers and staff to wear to improve our visibility and raise awareness (due to the demand we ran out of initial supplies within an hour).
We have restructured the LGBT+ team to make it sustainable and ensure we are able to deliver tangible and lasting results both internally and externally in our communities.
We have started making preparations to host the National Police LGBT Conference in 2020.

What we do

Our team meets regularly to talk about upcoming LGBT+ events, topical issues and to address any concerns. The network consists of a Chair, Deputy Chair and 26 other dedicated team members.

Our work consists of:

building on the relationship, general perception and levels of trust of the police within our LGBT+ communities
sharing information on support groups and good practice
raising awareness of issues faced within LGBT+ communities
providing a support service for LGBT+ officers and staff
raising awareness of hate crime, domestic abuse,sexual abuse and violence to give victims the confidence to speak to us and increase the reporting of offences.

Services and support

The LGBT+ Liaison team offers the following services and support to the community:

attend event you are hosting for community engagement
offer support to victim of crime and witness from an LGBT+ officer if you’ve already reported a crime or incident to us. This additional support does not replace your OIC (officer in case) or any other support you may receive from Avon and Somerset Police. We are also unable to allocate an LGBT+ officer to specifically investigate your report
licensees can request a visit from the team
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