San Jose Police Department Launches LGBT Recruitment Campaign

The San Jose Police Department has launched an LGBT recruitment campaign, attempting to attract new officers at the Silicon Valley Pride Parade.

According to PoliceOne, the recruitment campaign includes “identical ads showing the actual families of three officers: a heterosexual couple, a gay male couple and a lesbian couple,” while the department has also “created a liaison role dedicated to addressing crime and police concerns within the LGBT community.”

“The reality is the LGBT community gets overlooked often,” claimed Chief Eddie Garcia. “Bias isn’t solely about race. We can’t preach social justice outside the organization if we’re not preaching it inside as well. We want to continue to mirror the community we serve.”

San Jose Officer James Gonzales, an openly gay man, is helping to spearhead the campaign.

“These steps are significant. No matter what you say, unless officers and people are seeing other officers serving openly, how will they have the confidence to do the same?” declared Gonzales. “Seeing us in real same-sex couples can provide the confidence to work here and be open about their family status.”

“We’ve been at Pride for a number of years,” he continued. “But we’ve never recruited at a gay event showing a gay officer and their family.”

As reported, there are currently numerous cities which have police departments with LGBT liaison roles including “Los Angeles, New York, and, naturally, the city’s pioneering neighbors to the north in San Francisco.”

Numerous police departments in the United Kingdom now also have dedicated LGBT social media accounts, while others, both in the UK and the US, have decorated police cars with rainbow flags.