A Monitoring Guide 115 It is crucial for the police to be able to unmask bias motivations behind hate crimes, by analysing and processing possible homophobic or transphobic motives behind the incidents under consideration. However, when national hate crime laws do not include sexual orientation or gender identity as discriminatory bias, it is likely that case will not be processed as a hate crime, thus contributing to a lack of trust, underreporting, and invisibility. Police failures to effectively respond to reports of hate crimes may lead to the escalation of such crimes, and can have a harmful impact on the wider LGBTI “community” and on society as a whole, and significantly damage police relationships with whole segments of the population. Assessing how LGBT persons are handled when they report crimes including hate crimes - to the police will often fall outside the mandate of monitoring bodies. Nevertheless, understanding the broader interactions of law enforcement with groups historically subjected to discrimination forms part of a systemic approach to scrutinising power relations and cultures within institutions. Good practice The role of LGBTI liaison officers within police services The existence of LGBTI liaison officers within police services can generate increased awareness of LGBTI matters among officers and provide a “valuable resource for police organisations to draw on in tackling the under-reporting of hate crimes against LGBTI persons84”. In London’s Metropolitan Police, LGBT Liaison Officers play a fundamental role in how the police shapes and delivers services to LGBT people. While the sexual orientation or gender identity of an applicant is not per se a criteria for appointment, minimum knowledge, understanding, and commitment are required for the position. The role of Liaison Officers is to increase and improve the trust and confidence of LGBT persons 84 European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Professionally speaking: challenges to achieving equality for LGBT people, 2015, p. 47. Chapter IV des within police sub-cultures, and to the risk of re-victimising LGBT persons who have suffered hate crime during police arrest, detention, and/or investigations.