Bush could learn a thing or two from the cops

While D.C.’s most famous resident trades on anti-gay hysteria, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit wins an Innovations in American Government Award for its “cooperation and teamwork across departmental, jurisdictional, and geographic boundaries.”

In June of 2000, the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU) was created with the goal of forging a cooperative relationship that would better protect the estimated 10 percent of the city's 575,000 residential population and even more daily workers and tourists.

…In another innovation, GLBT and allied volunteers help guide and operate the unit, educating officers about the culture of the community and its needs, and freeing up department personnel for other work.

Beyond being a typical police-community liaison unit, D.C.’s GLLU has taken on more of a Special Victims Unit function, actually doing law enforcement and working “with other police units to deal with crimes committed by and against the GLBT communities.”

You can watch the presentation of the $100,000 award here.