Const. Brent Clark with Buckwheat at last year's Big Gay Out For the thirty police Diversity Liaison Officers from around the country who attended yesterday's Big Gay Out picnic in Auckland, especially those from smaller centres, the country’s biggest annual LGBT gathering was a chance to more fully understand the depth and variety of people and cultures that make up their gay communities. Amongst the sworn and non-sworn Diversity Liaison Officers, some gay or lesbian and some straight, was an officer with more reason than most of his fellow DLOs to maintain a close rapport with his community. Constable Brent Clark, an Auckland DLO, has been seconded to the Operation Soul team investigating the brutal killing of elderly gay Otahuhu man Ron Brown just before Christmas. Clark's role is to try to connect the police investigators with those nervous gay and bi men who may have some knowledge of Brown's character and activities. Despite being a DLO and currently working on a high profile yet frustrating case (more of which later), Clark is pretty much your standard cop on the beat. "I'm in uniform all the time," he laughs. "I work general duties, going around in the car with the red and blue flashing lights!" Why did he want to become a cop? "To be honest, I was working at a job where I was making rich people richer, and I hated it! So I decided it was time to work in a more community-focussed role. The police was one that had caught my interest, so I went for it." He finds the job interesting and challenging, even when dealing with life's tragic side. "On the most challenging days, I always come away thinking that if I have dealt with the situation correctly and professionally, then I've done a good job. So even when I'm, for example, giving people bad news, it's more about how you support them with that bad news. And then you know that you've done a good job, and they would want it no other way. When you get a phone call a week later saying 'hey thanks', you know you've done a good job, and done it professionally. So then you can come away feeling pretty good about it." AN IMPORTANT ROLE The DLO role is a 'portfolio role' that Clark undertook on top of his normal duties. "There are around 40 of us around the country, and we're all portfolio roles, so we all have other jobs, and we do this on top of that job." A Diversity Liaison Officer's role is to work with the LGBT community, to help break down the barriers between glbt people and the force, 'diversity' being the coy but somewhat practical police shorthand for 'gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.' "Basically we're a 'safe point' for the gay community to come to. I took on the DLO portfolio because I saw a need for it. I'm someone who wants to be part of the police and is also comfortable within the gay community. We have other Liaison Officers working with other communities - the Iwi Liaison Officers for Maori, the Asian Liaison Officers, and others for the Arab community, and the Pacific Island community," Clark says. The DLO project is a relatively recent innovation, only six years old. Some might think it unnecessary in this age of human rights legislation, decriminalisation of homosexual acts, civil unions, openly gay public figures such as MPs, ministers of religion and celebrities, but Clark believes DLOs play an important role. "We are a necessity, we play a very important role. It's a shame that we are a necessity, but at this time in history we're really important." It's that old fear of intrusive, uniformed authority peering into our bedrooms that still lingers from the bad old days when the police had to enforce unjust laws that could destroy the lives of gay men in particular. "I think the gay community needs to learn that the police have moved on from the old days. And vice-versa. The police have learned more about the gay community. It's like two groups of people learning about each other. And it's not quite as bad as everyone thinks!" Speaking on the eve of this year's Big Gay Out, Clark reflected on the first he attended, last year. "I had a great time, the day went really fast. It was a very busy social occasion. I had a great day. I had a lot of people coming up to me saying 'wow, it's great that you're here.'" THE STRUGGLE TO CONTACT RELUCTANT MEN Ronald Brown Being a DLO is about "being there for someone to talk to. I can provide advice on what to do or where to go in certain situations." This role is proving vitally important in the frustratingly tricky investigation of the Ron Brown killing, which has seen a Hungarian tourist arrested at the scene remain in remand prison awaiting further pre-trial hearings. Sexually active, Brown moved on the fringes of the gay men's community. Out there on the fringe is where men live often shadowy sexual lives men whose homosexuality is often hidden or constrained, a cause for caution and even shame, and sometimes fear. "We are having a struggle talking to people who have had interactions with Ron," says Clark. "We're looking for are those people who have met him, and any little bit of information could be key. And those are the people that we're struggling with. I think people are worried about approaching us with information that they would be worried about coming to the surface. The risk of family members finding out. Or just being 'outed', basically." While acknowledging that proper police investigation process means that records of information and evidence must be meticulous and official, Clark wants to get the message to these reluctant men that contact with the police is safe, "and that we will treat them well, with as much confidentiality as we can." Whilst much of what happened in the early hours of Saturday December 8th when police found Brown barely clinging to life (he died two days later) has emerged from evidence gathered at the scene, it’s the background details of Brown’s life that the police team at Operation Soul need to flesh out before the case goes to court. "We don't want any surprises on the stand. We need to put facts before the jury and, if we've done that, we've done our job." It’s a given of courtroom tactics that no prosecuting lawyer, or the defense for that matter, wants 'surprises' about a person’s character or demeanour sprung on them in front of a jury. "So we're just trying to get the most we can out about him, from all the people that knew him. Just so we get a true reflection of what Ron was like. We investigate from a neutral point of view - and obviously we speak to a lot of people. There might be some good and some bad, about anybody, but we just want to get a true reflection of what Ron was all about." But getting that true reflection, as comprehensive a character study as possible, is proving a big ask when vital information is held by men who are deeply reluctant to come forward. "We know that he spent a lot of his life within the gay community, and therefore he would have met a lot of people," says Clark, "but unfortunately we've only spoken to a few people that knew him. And there's a lot more people out there. As investigators, we need to speak to as many people as we can." What kind of information would be helpful? Basically, anything, good or bad. "We want to know what he was like. What sort of places he went to, anything from a gay investigation side... for instance, how he interacted in a sexual nature. Or anything about him at all, really." IDENTITIES CAN BE WITHHELD, EVEN FROM THE COURT Clark is making a personal and direct appeal to his community. "If you have information, you could either call us on the hotline, or you can email me directly, and we'll be back in contact. We'll talk about the information you have. From there, depending on the type of information you have, we might want to take a statement." Anonymous information might be helpful as a guide but for anything to be useful in court the source must be on record. "We would need to know name and address, full details." However, for those afraid to be identified that's not so scary as it at first seems. "That information would be on file within the police, but when the statement is disclosed to defence lawyers and council, identifying information such as addresses and date of birth are all taken out of it," says Clark. The Operation Soul hotline, 09 524 1926, is available 24 hours a day, sometimes answered by duty police staff, sometimes connected to voicemail. However, on Thursday 14 February between 1-7pm Clark will take all calls personally and confidentially, hoping this will encourage input from gay and bi men who would prefer to talk to someone sensitive to their personal situation. Those who prefer to make contact by email can contact Clark at brent.j.clark@police.govt.nz. Matt Akersten and Jay Bennie - 11th February 2008
Credit: Matt Akersten and Jay Bennie
First published: Monday, 11th February 2008 - 3:39am