NYPD unit that inspired ‘Law & Order: SVU’ faces probe for gender bias
- The Special Victims Division is accused of shaming and re-traumatising sex abuse survivors and failing to conduct basic investigative steps
- The US Justice Department plans to conduct a comprehensive review of the agency’s policies, procedures and training for looking into sexual assault cases
The US Justice Department will investigate the New York police agency that inspired the hit television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, over its treatment of sexual assault victims.
Two federal prosecutors in New York announced Thursday in a joint statement that the Special Victims Department (SVD) would be investigated to determine whether it “engages in a pattern or practice of gender-biased policing”.
Allegations against the agency “include failing to conduct basic investigative steps and instead shaming and abusing survivors and re-traumatising them during investigations”, the statement said.
“Victims of sex crimes deserve the same rigorous and unbiased investigations of their cases that the NYPD affords to other categories of crime,” Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in the statement.
His Eastern District counterpart Breon Peace added that in recent months “we have learned concerning information from a variety of sources of historical issues about the way the Special Victims Division has conducted its investigations for many years”.
The Justice Department said it plans to conduct a comprehensive review of the SVD’s policies, procedures, and training for investigations of sexual assault crimes.