ITHACA, N.Y.(WENY)-- The Ithaca Police Department has officially appointed one of their officers as an LGBTQ liaison. WENY News was able to meet with the IPD Chief and the new liaison, Officer Orsaio, to find out why they created this position. 

"In the community, just if we look at the transgender community, there's 1.4 million Americans, which equates to about half of our percent or .6 of 1% and there's also statistics that show that members of the LGBTQ aren't always feeling safe around law enforcement and we want to change that. We want a climate that everyone feels safe when they interact with members of our department, and we think this will be a great step towards that," Police Chief Dennis Nayor tells WENY News.  

Officer Mary Orsaio told WENY News that she was honored to become the new LGBTQ liaison for Ithaca. She is now taking online courses to better prepare herself for this new responsibility as well as training her fellow co-workers in this field. She and her colleagues at the IPd say they hope this new position and training will make the community feel more comfortable to speak with the officers. 

"One of my roles is going to be an advocate to those who need to report maybe a hate crime, and maybe they're not comfortable doing so. My background and my training is going to help me be that liaison, to help them feel comfortable coming to the police department and speaking to us," says Officer Orsaio. 

Officer Orsiao says that she is ready to take on this new position and be the middleman between these two groups. 

"I worked the commons unit for two years, I've served on a number of community boards.  But to me this topic is super special. I'm a member of the LGBTQ community so to be able to be that middleman  between law enforcement  and a community that I belong to means a lot and I'm really excited about it," says Orsaio.

The officers at the IPD tell WENY News that their over all goal is to make everyone feel safe when they are in the presence of the officers and or feel safe calling for help or someone to talk to.