Recruiting Gay Police Officers

As a long-term reserve officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, I would find it eminently reassuring if on just one occasion I could read a dissenting opinion regarding the advisability of the recruitment of male homosexuals into the department.

My objection is limited to male homosexuals and is based on the evidence of massive HIV infection already present in this group of people. Female homosexuals pose no problem since their exposure to HIV is virtually nil and their rate of infection stands at par with the populace as a whole.

A particularity of law enforcement is the frequent occurrence of relatively low levels of physical violence, which result in an abundance of cuts and scrapes and random smears of blood, sweat and saliva. This, the contact of bodily fluids with skin lesions, is the formula for the transference of HIV infection.

To document the incidence of HIV infection among male homosexuals, I cite an article in The Times of June 20: Leon McKusick of UC San Francisco Medical School states, “35% to 40% of the estimated 56,000 gay males (of San Francisco) are now estimated to be infected.” That’s 22,000 souls.

Given these appalling numbers and the law’s insistence that those afflicted remain anonymous, prudence dictates that all male homosexuals be viewed as possible carriers and any policy of direct recruitment of field personnel from the ranks of male homosexuals be recognized as potentially disastrous.

JOHN M. COONEY

Los Angeles