Comment by ILikeNeurons on 26/12/2022 at 22:32 UTC

101 upvotes, 3 direct replies (showing 3)

View submission: Detective completely overhauled the way his department handled rape cases, greatly improving the clearance rate | Why aren't his tactics more widely adopted?

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Specifically, here's what they did:

• 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.

If you think that's standard everywhere, why are there still so many untested rape kits in Texas[1]?

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/stoprape/comments/zvn8ym/despite_legislation_and_funding_texas_still_has/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Replies

Comment by what_pd at 27/12/2022 at 00:50 UTC

46 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Yeah those things are best practice. If you're doing something different with a traumatized witness or victim for any type of investigation, you're doing it wrong.

And like the other guy said; police don't test rape kits.

Comment by TwelfthCycle at 27/12/2022 at 16:15 UTC

9 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Definitely what's taught in every class I've been to.

As to untested rape kits? Because money and facilities? Doesn't have a thing to do with "What they did."

Comment by sup3riorw0n at 26/12/2022 at 23:49 UTC

33 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Police Depts don’t test rape kits. Private labs that are contracted by the state do. And like any other govt contractor, labs with that lowest bid win the contract- not the best. And, how many labs like that do you think there are in TX? 2? 20? 200? In a state of roughly 30 million with few hundred thousand violent crimes each year, that many labs isn’t nearly enough. And, these labs aren’t immune to labor shortages either. And, it still costs money from the individual Dept.

So you have a perfect storm (a bad storm) of sorts — where you have a few labs, poorly equipped, poorly staffed, processing lab work for hundreds of thousands of crimes.