Sex Crimes Detectives to Investigate More Cases, NYPD Says

NEW YORK, NY — The NYPD said specialized investigators will handle every felony sex crime case after a scathing inspector general's report showed police were shortchanging sexual assault and rape victims. Investigators from the Special Victims Division will now collect additional evidence in all cases where the task previously fell to local precinct detectives, the Police Department said.

The decision was part of the NYPD's formal response, issued Tuesday, to the March 27 report, which strongly criticized how the department handles sex crimes and staffs the Special Victims Division, which investigates them.

"Rape and sexual assault are among the most traumatic and horrific crimes someone could ever experience, and the NYPD is deeply committed to doing everything we can to not only apprehend offenders and stop assaults, but to ensure every survivor feels the safety and support they need from our department to come forward and bravely seek justice," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said in a statement.

Despite committing to some change, the Police Department contested the report's central finding that its sex crime investigators are overworked compared to other detectives, forcing them to prioritize so-called stranger rapes over other cases.

The Special Victims Division's current staffing levels "translate into manageable caseloads for each investigator" that are expected to fall to an average of four to five cases at a time with a recent staffing boost, the NYPD wrote in its response.

But the Department of Investigation, which houses the NYPD's inspector general, countered that the division's caseload has increased 65 percent since 2010, while internal documents show a lack of staff. The report recommended adding 73 investigators to the Special Victims Division's adult sex crime squads.

The DOI said it "remains committed to its findings that critical reforms in the NYPD are integral to protecting victims of sex abuse and assault."

The inspector general's report also criticized the assignment of untrained local precinct detectives to continue some sex crime investigations after a patrol cop arrests the perpetrator, a step referred to as case enhancement.

The NYPD said it will end that practice and instead have an investigator from the Special Victims Division, also known as SVD, enhance all felony sex crime cases, including so-called domestic and acquaintance rapes. But the response noted that the SVD already handled all cases in which an arrest could not immediately be made.

The response also touted the Police Department's outreach to survivors of sex crimes, the recent addition of 20 investigators to the SVD and its plans to renovate facilities used by the special victims team.

"Unfortunately, the (inspector general) did not report on the NYPD’s focused and concerted efforts to increase the reporting of sexual assaults, promote transparency about its work, build stronger cases, and improve the experience of survivors when they decide to report a sexual assault," the response says.

The response comes after police officials recorded 181 rapes in May, the highest number for that month in 16 years.

The Police Department's response did not thoroughly impress the National Organization of Women, which has supported the DOI's findings.

While she said the Special Victims Divsion does some good work, NOW-NYC President Sonia Ossorio said police officials must go further to boost its ranks and give surviviors the help they need.

"The NYPD has not yet agreed to invest in the number and quality of detectives needed to be the best in the business," Ossorio said in a statement. "We hope that this commitment will soon be made."

(Lead image: Photo by Shutterstock / Volha Yanchukovic)