https://www.startribune.com/a-better-way-to-investigate-rape-denied-justice-part-eight/501636971/
created by ILikeNeurons on 26/12/2022 at 14:37 UTC
192 upvotes, 10 top-level comments (showing 10)
Comment by what_pd at 26/12/2022 at 16:54 UTC
133 upvotes, 1 direct replies
TL;DR: he went from being a personification of 90s-era horror stories about terrible investigations, to nationally-accepted best practice. Now he gets to put more rapers in jail.
Comment by whirlinggibberish at 26/12/2022 at 15:56 UTC
208 upvotes, 4 direct replies
"Detective Justin Boardman had a reliable way of clearing many of the rape cases that crossed his desk.
When the only witness was the victim, he would call her, warn that it was a “he said, she said” case that would be tough to investigate, and hope that she would drop it."
If that's accurate the guy was just a dogshit investigator. "Don't be a lazy slug" isn't really a "tactic."
Comment by No_more_Whippits4u at 26/12/2022 at 17:47 UTC*
68 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Ah if it were only that simple right?
Sadly it’s not. Of course the ACAB crowd wants it to be “all LE’s fault”. That’s the easiest route to outrage. Yet you have DA’s and ADA’s dropping charges, or reducing a rape down to a simple battery, or granting signature bail for a violent offender — and DA’s are ELECTED officials. So the public is voting for these weak-in-the -knees DA’s that are more concerned with their clearance rate rather than actually seeking justice. Are they alone? Heck no. You have state legislators enacting weak on crime laws that allow this nonsense to be cyclic.
To put it all on LE is bad faith at best, and completely ignorant at worst. It’s a system problem that comes from the top.
Comment by [deleted] at 26/12/2022 at 16:35 UTC
62 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Such a backhanded article. It’s almost like the author *wants* to sharply criticize police but stops just short. So many of the typical anti-police buzzwords and rhetoric and loaded language. This author *wants* to believe the police are failing and need change.
The reality is his whole strategy is slightly different interviews and not just immediately giving up on a case. It’s not groundbreaking it’s common sense, and those types of interview strategies *are* commonly used everywhere I’ve been. How to interview a rape victim 101.
Comment by Hsoltow at 26/12/2022 at 17:00 UTC
45 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is nice for departments that have dedicated detectives to answer rape reports.
For most of the country they have to filter through patrol first.
Patrol probably won't have the special trauma interview training. They'll have their standard 'just the facts' method.
Most departments also dont have space for and can't afford having two interview rooms.
God help you if the department is so small they don't have a detective.
All these reforms are pointless if there's no staffing and the pay is low. Right now pay is okay but staffing is non existent.
Comment by Blueonblack42 at 26/12/2022 at 20:05 UTC
43 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Former sex crimes detective for many years in one of the most backward-thinking, low paying, behind-the-times states in the country.
What this detective (and his department) eventually started doing has always been the norm--even here.
Any detective who acted the way this guy did prior to his sudden "groundbreaking" realization that you should treat sexual assault victims differently than victims of other types of crimes and, ya know, maybe spend a little more time on these difficult cases, was just being a terrible investigator.
Articles like this infuriate me. This is yet another article that tries to paint law enforcement as a whole with a broad and negative brush. They portray this guy as some groundbreaking "bad cop turned good cop" to push the idea that the rest of us should try to be like him. When in reality, this guy is just now catching up to where most of us have been since forever. This article SHOULD have been about condemning this detective and his entire agency for being so terrible at their jobs for so long, not about celebrating that they finally got their head in the game and started doing what their citizens paid them to do.
Not so fun fact about sexual assault cases: It's almost ALWAYS a "he said, she said" scenario. All the physical evidence in the world points to what? That sex took place? Most suspects will readily admit that! The defense is always "it was consensual". Tell me how you prove that it wasn't?
Short of a video, reliable witness, or a confession from the suspect, we almost always end up with nothing. This is why interview skills are so critical, a suspect confession is usually what makes or breaks these types of cases. And anyone accused of rape/sexual assault usually understands the severity of the charge and lawyers up. Once that happens, you're not getting a confession.
So many rape/sexual cases go unsolved not because we don't believe the victim's story, but because we simply cannot prove it happened that way she said it did. And like many others already stated--I'd rather let 10 guilty people go free than send up a file that gets one innocent person wrongly convicted. Especially on a sex crime charge which, even if you're found not guilty in court, is significantly life-altering.
Comment by [deleted] at 26/12/2022 at 16:59 UTC*
29 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by [deleted] at 26/12/2022 at 17:27 UTC
35 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by ze11ez at 27/12/2022 at 05:38 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This reminds me of the show "Unbelieveable" on Netflix. Before he changes his ways as a detective, that Netflix show basically describes what he did when someone reported a rape
Comment by ILikeNeurons at 26/12/2022 at 16:24 UTC
-3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
TL;DR: Detective Boardman learned the science of trauma, and completely transformed how his department handles rape cases. Within a year, the number of cases sent to prosecutors by West Valley City police doubled. Convictions tripled. Utah's legislature now requires all new officers to be trained in brain trauma.
Approach the victim in a compassionate, empathetic way. Tell the person that it’s OK if they don’t remember or don’t know. Ask open-ended questions and don’t interrupt. Ask what they felt during an assault. Ask them about sights, smells and sounds to jog memories. If tough questions need to be asked, explain why. When done, explain the next steps...Victim advocates needed to be involved as soon possible. All cases needed to be screened in person to make sure the investigations were thorough. All rape kits had to be tested...Instead of interviewing victims in the same cramped bare room where they interrogated suspects, officers renovated a larger, more home like space outfitted with couches and table lamps...Russo’s goal was wider than justice for the victim. He wanted to help them recover from their assault.