Paying attention to pronouns, just part of the lesson for field training officers sitting in on the St. Petersburg Police Department's first transgender training.
"For lack of a better word there's a lot of ignorance because they don't understand what the whole population consists of and wants involved with it so I think this is a good way to try and get everyone on the same page," said Lt. Markus Hughes, the departments LGBTQ liaison.
CHIEF'S MEMO:Read memo on interaction with transgender people
While estimates show there are fewer than a million transgender people in the United States, recent cases like the murder of India Clarke, found in a North Tampa park last month, show it's a segment of society that law enforcement needs to understand.
"If you just look at the percentages of how many of them are attacked versus the general population yeah they are targeted for being who they are," Hughes said.
Clarke, who personally identified as a female for years, was identified as male by law enforcement. That won't happen in St. Petersburg according to a new three-page policy released by Chief Anthony Holloway this week. Under Section 4, the policy states in part "...the individual shall be treated in accordance with their expressed gender."
"If you would have told me 25 years ago that I would be having this conversation with you I probably would have said no, but again times are changing and we need to change with the times," Holloway said. "Let's get ahead of this before we start getting complaints so officers will know what they need to do."
The supervisors who went through the two hour training session will then start training the rest of the department.
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