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Angela Dawson directs pedestrians and traffic at the corner of Main and Hastings in Vancouver on March 5, 2012. Ms. Dawson won a human rights tribunal complaint against the Vancouver Police Department, prompting the force to implement a policy for officers who are interacting with transgender people.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail

Vancouver police have adopted a new policy aimed at stopping officers from discriminating against transgender people after the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal rebuked the force over its systemic maltreatment of a trans woman.

The new rules, which were released publicly on Thursday, require officers to ask a person who identifies as transgender which gender and name they would like to use.

Officers must then refer to any transgender person by their chosen name and gender in person and when completing any report, while still verifying the person's identification by recording their basic information as shown on government-issued identification.

"The VPD values and respects the diversity of Vancouver, and recognizes that each community may have unique needs related to policing," the police force's director of planning and audits, Drazen Manojlovic, said in a news release.

"This policy and procedure strikes an appropriate balance between VPD members' legal responsibility to verify identity in official reports, while being respectful to the transgender person's right to be referred to by the name and gender identity they have chosen."

The department also released a training video it says will be shown to all employees to sensitize them to the issues transgender people routinely face and provide ways in which police can understand and interact respectfully with this marginalized part of the population, the statement added.

The department says the policy has been endorsed by both the board of the Trans Alliance Society Board and the City of Vancouver's LGBTQ2+ Advisory Committee.

The new policy stems from a complaint filed by Angela Dawson. The tribunal awarded her $15,000 in March of last year for injuries to her dignity, feelings and self-respect, and found the department committed "systemic discrimination" over how it identified transgender people.

Ms. Dawson filed the complaint after several run-ins with police in and around downtown Vancouver, where she is known as "Rollergirl" for routinely directing traffic while wearing bright outfits and Rollerblades. She has a substantial following on Instagram, where she posts videos of her daily interactions with the public.

"Ms. Dawson testified that, when the police refer to her as (her legal name) Jeffrey or use male gender pronouns, it makes her feel embarrassed and humiliated," tribunal member Catherine McCreary wrote in the ruling.

"She thinks that, when the police treat her as a male, it gives other people the right to treat her as a male, to pick on her, and to humiliate her."

While several of Ms. Dawson's complaints were dismissed, the tribunal found police engaged in discrimination twice in 2010.

In March of that year, Ms. Dawson spent a night in jail shortly after she had completed her sex reassignment surgery. Even though she told jail nurses she needed to do certain post-surgery procedures, she was not given the appropriate equipment or taken to hospital, Ms. McCreary wrote.

The decision says Ms. Dawson was "very concerned" about undertaking these procedures, called dilations. The risks of not doing them include infections or irreversible damage to the vaginal canal.

In another incident in June, 2010, an arrest report referred to Ms. Dawson as "Jeffrey," "he," and "him," even though she gave her name as Angela at the scene.

The arresting officer testified that he used her legal name on the form because that was how she was identified in a police database. However, on other citations, Ms. Dawson was referred to as Angela.

The police board argued it was Ms. Dawson's responsibility to change her name legally, but she testified she did not think she could afford it.

With reports from The Canadian Press

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