With the number of reported city rapes soaring in early 2019, the NYPD on Tuesday announced that its sex crimes unit will start tracking incidents in CompStat-style meetings to better tailor their efforts.
“For the first time since the inception of CompStat, we are starting CompStat meetings solely dedicated to the Special Victims Division,” said NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Lori Pollock. “The improvements … [are] to bring Special Victims up to speed with the rest of the department’s data analytics.”
The five boroughs saw 150 rape reports in January 2019, a troubling 27.1 percent hike from the 118 attacks tallied in the first month of 2018, department stats show.
For nearly a year, the NYPD has pointed to the so-called “Weinstein effect” and #MeToo movement when asked about the climbing rape numbers, saying they are at least partly due to an increased willingness by victims to come forward.
“The increase in reports this year is actually encouraging,” said Pollock.
Pollock pointed to the upcoming SVU CompStat meetings — the first of which is scheduled for Thursday morning at One Police Plaza, department sources said — as another tool that the long-embattled unit is turning to as it tries to find its footing under newly minted head Judith Harrison.
“We are adding 35 more investigators to the 260 that we have presently. That’s a 14 percent increase in investigators to handle the additional reporting of rapes,” said Pollock. “We have improved facilities and new training.”
Pollock also made clear that the department is welcoming the increased sex crimes workload, rather than shying away from it.
“I will continue the message to all survivors,” she said. “Please come forward and give us a chance to investigate these crimes no matter when they occurred.”
Additional reporting by Aaron Feis
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