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

Organisation

Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Slovenia, the police, the General Police Directorate, the Police Academy and the Research and Social Skills Centre.

Start and end date

Start date:

15 January 2020.

End date:

14 January 2022.

Scope

The project is being implemented nationwide at all three levels of organisation: local, regional and national.

Target group(s)

• Police officers (specialised LGBTI liaison officers and others).
• Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or people working for them.
• LGBTI people.
• The general public.

Funding

Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers and the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme.

The total estimated value of the project is € 219,067.52, with the European Commission contributing a maximum of € 175,254.02, or 80 % of the total eligible costs.

Objectives

• Increase awareness and improve knowledge of the importance of and the need to deal with hate crime (bullying, discrimination and violence) against LGBTI people and their (or to them related) property.
• Increase the availability of support services for victims of hate crime against LGBTI people within interested NGOs; this includes the establishment of ‘LGBTI safe spots’ where victims can seek support for the identification, reporting and prevention of hate crime (against LGBTI people). This objective is not part of the current project but will be developed further in the follow-up to this project. Therefore, the specific tasks of the LGBTI safe spots in NGOs have not yet been set.
• Establish a support system for victims of hate crime against LGBTI people:
  • train nine LGBTI liaison officers to support LGBTI people who are victims of crime and accompany them through the police treatment process in cases of hate crime based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
  • organise awareness-raising training sessions for approximately 240 police officers from across the country (initial basic training).
• Follow up through the application process and engage with LGBTI people in the police force.

Outputs

The project is ongoing, so no outputs were available at the time of collection of information on practices.

Description

Planned activities include:

• the selection of nine authorised officers from five police administrations to be trained and designated as LGBTI liaison officers: one from the Criminal Police Administration, one from the Uniformed Police Administration and two from the Police Academy;
• organising awareness-raising training sessions for approximately 240 police officers from across the country;
• identifying the shortcomings in and obstacles to the reporting of hate crime against LGBTI people, monitoring hate crime reporting and finding possible practical solutions;
• making recommendations for amendments of legislative acts and guidelines on police work in this area;
• making recommendations on the introduction of these topics into educational processes for future police officers;
• establishing a system of regular cooperation between the police and NGOs in this area (the exchange of information and findings arising from the practices of and monitoring by both actors, annual meetings of police officers with staff of NGOs, expert consultations to upgrade the cooperation system, joint education, cooperation with similar practices abroad, etc.) on the basis of the common victim support system that is already in place;
• creating a joint promotional and awareness-raising campaign with an NGO, the Society of Cultural, Information and Advisory Centre (Društvo Kulturno Informacijsko in Svetovalno Središče Legebitra, Legebitra).

Critical success factors

Conflict-related sexual violence General Police Administration employees were actively involved in the operational work three times during the project. Assistance and coordination to police officers at the local level was provided, to help them resolve cases involving members of the LGBTI community. We believe that knowing, receiving and respecting vulnerable groups represents the foundation of excellent cooperation. We have received positive feedback from both the police and from organisations and individuals from the LGBTI community.

Information will become available about the project’s successes and its effects on society and what is happening in the organisation once the project has been completed. The true value of the goals set out in this project will be revealed over time, as individuals and organisations work together for the LGBTI community.

The essential conditions needed to help make the practice successful are as follows:

• previous, even if ad hoc, successful cooperation between Legebitra and the leadership of the police and, especially, individual members of police staff;
• support from the police leadership on Legebitra’s idea for a joint project on the topic of addressing hate crime against LGBTI people;
• support from the police in preparing the application for the project in cooperation with Legebitra;
• full commitment to the project by staff at the Centre for Development and Social Skills at the Police Academy;
• joint implementation of the project activities – this enables the activities to be implemented while taking into consideration the realities of the police and the LGBTI community, which in some cases are difficult to reconcile;
• the willingness of police staff who are working on the project and Legebitra staff to learn from each other;
• both parties being constantly aware that the project is only the first step in establishing structured and continuous cooperation.

Actors involved in the design and implementation of the practice

The Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Slovenia and the national police are the lead partners and project coordinators. Legebitra is a project partner and co-beneficiary.

Cooperation was initiated by the conflict-related sexual violence PA, which has been trying, since its inception in 2014, to raise awareness among employees and society as such. As part of the work area ‘Respect for diversity’, conflict-related sexual violence PA employees contacted representatives of Legebitra, who saw the potential for cooperation according to the vision of the conflict-related sexual violence PA.

Monitoring and evaluation

The project is supervised by European Commission supervisors.

In Slovenia, monitoring of activities is carried out by the task force supervisor.

A project group evaluator has also been appointed. He will complete his work once the project has ended. He has no comments to make on the implementation of the project and activities that have taken place to date.

Before the first training session with coordinators (nine people), a survey was carried out among participants. Another survey and evaluation will take place after the training is completed. An evaluation will also be carried out later among participants of a shorter training course (about 100 participants). No evaluation has been caried out to date.

Publicly available contact details

Legebitra (as a project partner)
Trubarjeva 76A Ljubljana
Website