NEW YORK -- A Department of Investigation report released Tuesday blasts the NYPD for failing to commit adequate resources to investigating rape.
The report specifically criticizes the department’s policy of downgrading the importance of “acquaintance” or date rape by not forwarding these cases to the Special Victims Division.
Instead, the SVD is directed to handle only stranger rapes and high profile cases, while date rapes are kept with local detective squads, the DOI report found.
This practice contradicts Commissioner James O’Neill’s assertion in December that all reported rapes are “fully investigated by the seasoned professionals in Special Victims.”
“The failure to treat acquaintance and domestic rape as crimes on par with stranger rape is unacceptable in modern law enforcement,” the DOI report states.
The DOI report quotes multiple internal SVD memos, including an undated one that states, “SVD currently has very serious operational problems that place the Department at substantial risk and those problems are staffing dependent."
A Nov. 24, 2014 internal memo by the SVD commanding officer asserts that a higher-up told him “that we did not have to investigate every misdemeanor case.”
The commanding officer, who is not identified in the DOI report, responded in the memo, ”This was an unacceptable proposition for sex-crime complaints and one in which the undersigned ignored.”
The report makes clear the insufficient staffing of the Special Victims Division is by no means a new problem.
DOI says back in 2010 an internal NYPD working group found that the SVD was overworked and that staffing needed to be increased significantly.
Eight years ago that working group recommended hiring 26 more adult sex crime detectives, bringing the unit staffing to 96. But staffing has actually stayed more or less the same since. As of this month there were 67 detectives in the adult sex crime units, DOI found.
“NYPD has understaffed and under-resourced SVD,” the DOI report stated. “Internal NYPD documents acknowledge that many sexual assault cases are not properly investigated due to staffing and resource limitations.”
DOI made several responses but said in its report that NYPD rejected all of them, insisting that SVD staffing was adequate and that all reported rapes are thoroughly investigated.
NYPD had no immediate response early Tuesday.
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