We also asked the commissioner about the name change of the Domestic Violence Unit. What was called the DVU from its inception will now be called the "Gender-Based Violence Response and Investigative Unit" (GVRIU).
And while an internal police memorandum says "this decision….reflects the department's broader commitment to addressing the complexities and challenges associated with gender-based violence in ALL its forms," to some it sounds like what might be called "woke-ism" - and the inclusion of LGBTQ considerations.
The Commissioner discussed this today:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We have had the domestic violence unit in place for quite a number of years now and with the evolving of time we saw the need to change the name from domestic violence to gender based violence response and investigation unit. At the end of the day we have to look beyond the domestic issue in terms of what happens in a home between a man, woman and child and see how we can encapsulate those other factors where gender violence is concerned and so the unit is now going to be tasked with that responsibility of making sure that we can capture everybody. At the end of the day as a police organization we cannot discriminate, I know that there are some school of thought out there who are already spewing some of their own agenda that this is being done with a view to accommodate the LGBTQ whatever it may be but at the end of the day we have to understand that whether a person is straight, bisexual, heterosexual, or whatever, we as a department must represent them. We cannot tell people that because you're this we cannot represent you. We are an organization that is created with the intent to make sure that we protect everybody regardless of your race, color, culture, creed, sexual orientation as the case may be so we are extremely proud of the move we are making now to ensure that we have a progressive unit within our department to be able to address all forms of gender based violence."
"With the change of focus of with the additional responsibility given to the unit now. There certainly is going to be a need for more training for the officers who worked within the unit and not just those officers but every police officer can understand the dynamism of gender based violence. It cannot be that we give them certain responsibilities and we do not explain to them or give them something that would be able to help them understand and properly respond to these issues. And so training is going to be essential and Mr Jones, and director of training Ms Usher are going to work together to ensure that we get the right people onboard to provide this trainings for us."
The change took effect on New Year's day.
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