Irving PD names Sgt. Jerry Sanderford as the department’s first LGBT liaison

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

Sgt. Jerry Sanderford was recently named LGBT liaison for the Irving Police Department.

When he was named LGBT liaison. Sanderford called around to other cities in the area to see which ones, in addition to Dallas and Fort Worth, had created similar positions.

Arlington, with about 150,000 more people than Irving, hasn’t. Plano, with about 50,000 more people than Irving, hadn’t either, but the chief’s assistant, who answered the phone, commented, “Hmmm. That’s a good idea.”

In fact, Sanderford is the first LGBT liaison to be appointed in a suburban city in North Texas.

He explained that new Irving Police Chief Jeff Spivey is making some changes in the department. And new Irving Mayor Rick Stopfer and City Manager Chris Hill support the idea.

“One of my goals as the somewhat new chief of police is to build relationships,” Spivey told Dallas Voice. “I looked at where we were falling short in community building.”

Spivey said he and Sanderford “go way back,” and he knew Sanderford would be a great officer to fill the liaison role.

That support didn’t surprise Sanderford at all.

“Since I came out, there’ve been no issues,” Sanderford said. “I’ve had no problems. They [the department] don’t tolerate [discrimination or harassment].”

Sanderford said he came out to himself, his family and friends when he divorced his wife, with whom he had two children. After his divorce, he said, he asked himself, “Why am I living a lie?”

He came out to city and IPD officials when he was promoted to sergeant.

Sanderford said he and his husband, James Fannon, have been together for 18 years. “I met him a year into the divorce,” he said.

Sanderford had gotten custody of his children. He said being a working dad and taking care of the children wasn’t a big change for him since he had always done the cooking and cleaning and had always been the one to take the kids to school.

“The children were my focus,” he said.

That’s why, he said, he waited for six months after meeting Fannon to introduce his boyfriend to his children. And it was another three years before the two men moved in together. But from that point on, they raised the two children — now ages 20 and 27 — together.

Sanderford was born in Midland and raised in Houston. After serving in the military, he moved to Irving, where he had family and began working in the Irving jail. From there, he became a police officer.

He said he comes to the position of LGBT liaison with plenty of experience under his belt. He’s been a detective, worked undercover, worked in youth services with juvenile crimes, worked with runaways and missing persons, and worked on cases of domestic violence and crimes against children.

Creating the position of liaison made sense, Sanderford said, especially considering that it doesn’t cost the city any money since he continues in his current position as patrol sergeant on the night shift.

The position of liaison, Sanderford said, will be different in Irving than it is in Dallas. Irving has no gayborhood, no cluster of LGBT-owned businesses and no bars. In fact, the city actually had no bars at all, and an exception had to be made when the Toyota Music Factory opened to turn that area into an entertainment district.

While Irving doesn’t have any neighborhoods where the LGBT community has clustered, Sanderford said, “We have a vast LGBT community in Irving, spread out throughout the city.”

Diversity is Irving’s trademark, he said, despite the bad press the city got under its previous, anti-Muslim mayor, who left that position when she was appointed by the Trump administration as U.S. Housing and Urban Development regional administrator overseeing Texas and the four contiguous states.

A third of Irving’s population was not born in the U.S. Irving’s 75038 zip code, just east of DFW Airport, is the most diverse neighborhood in the country, with a population that is 26 percent Asian, 25 percent black, 23 percent Hispanic, 23 percent white and 2.5 percent multiracial.

To Sanderford and the Irving police department, the LGBT community is just part of that diversity.

But Irving doesn’t have a Resource Center, AIDS agencies, its own Federal Club or other service, social or LGBT political organizations. Instead, Sanderford is offering his services directly to Irving citizens.

He said he is the contact person for LGBT residents in police-related matters. People might have a question about the process, he said: How would a case work, either for a victim or the accused?

Sanderford recognizes that many LGBT people haven’t had good experiences with police. If that’s the case in Irving, he said, he wants them to contact him. He said Irving wants to know if an officer has had an attitude with someone and it seems to be related to the person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. He also acknowledged that with the fast-growing and ever-more-visible transgender community, his services may be needed now more than ever.

Sanderford talked about how policing has changed in the 25 years he’s been on the Irving police force: “Body cameras, cams in cars recording everything, computers in cars.”

While incidents recorded on body cams have made national news highlighting discrimination and over-reaction by police, Sanderford said his experience is different. “Cams have saved a lot of complaints, ” he said. “In more cases, it shows officers have done what they should.”

On Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index, Irving scored a 6 (compared to Dallas’ and Fort Worth’s scores of 100). Sanderford’s appointment should add 10 points to this year’s score. In addition, hate crime reporting to the FBI that includes bias crimes based on gender identity and sexual orientation will add another 12 points.

Sanderford said in his 25 years on the force, he’s never heard of a crime reported as anti-LGBT hate. With no identified LGBT neighborhood in the city, targeting the LGBT community is more difficult than in a bigger city. But now that the police department has an LGBT liaison officer, if such a crime does occur, the victim may be more willing to report those details of the incident.

Spivey summed up the role he sees for Sanderford: Sanderford will be the point of contact for LGBT people in Irving who have a question or might have been a victim of a crime.

If they don’t feel comfortable talking to another officer or have ever had a bad experience with the police, the liaison can make sure LGBT Irving residents are treated with respect.