NYPD officials continued their damage control Friday by announcing a new campaign urging sex-crime victims to come forward to police — and promising that “every single crime will be investigated.”
The dramatic new push to encourage sexual-assault reports comes a week after a city Department of Investigation report excoriated the NYPD for understaffing at its Special Victims Division, which has resulted in a backlog of cases and even botched investigations.
The NYPD’s “The Call is Yours” campaign, which launched Monday, will appear in 1,000 subway cars in both English and Spanish, as well as along 200 buses and inside city taxis.
A massive billboard attached to a truck will also tour the city for two weeks, informing victims to report crimes by calling 911 or the SVD 24-hour hotline, 212-267-RAPE.
“THE CALL IS YOURS,” the moving ad says. “Reporting a sexual assault to the NYPD could bring the perpetrator to justice, prevent future assaults, and connect you with important resources and services.”
The campaign has also been pushed out to more than 450,000 city residents via text message.
“This initiative has been built off of ‘Your City, Your Call,’ which is our Crime Stoppers initiative, which has worked quite well for us,” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce explained at a press conference. “We want everybody to know we’re going to investigate all complaints. I don’t want anyone out there to think about the statute of limitations — it’s not relevant. We will determine that as we go forward.”
Deputy Commissioner for Collaborative Policing Susan Herman said the campaign comes amid the growing Me Too movement – a women-led effort that’s exposed widespread instances of sexual assault.
“We wanted to make sure they knew we’re open for business,” Herman said referring to sexual assault victims. “No crime is too far in the past — every single one will be investigated.”
Police said the campaign cost $175,000 for the ad space and that the mobile truck was donated.
A police spokesman said the campaign has been in the works since February – and that its unveiling Friday isn’t related to the DOI report.
Last week, the DOI published a searing report documenting years of issues at SVD, including a staffing shortage that the NYPD allegedly ignored resulting in just 67 detectives for 5,661 cases in 2017.
The DOI also found that many new SVD investigators are so-called “white shields” — inexperienced police officers serving provisionally as detectives.
Still, Boyce insisted, “We’ve changed everything about the Special Victims Division from 1994,” saying his detectives are “more highly trained, more highly motivated.”
On Wednesday, Police Commissioner James O’Neill announced a “top-to-bottom scrub” of SVD and said 20 additional detectives were allocated to the embattled division’s Special Victims Units, which handle adult sex-crime cases in each of the five boroughs.
Sources said Manhattan’s SVU received one new sergeant and is getting five additional police officers on Monday — who have an average of five years on the job and no investigative experience.
“It’s a sham in response to the DOI report. It’s a disgrace,” the source railed. “These might be good cops but none of them have any business being in Special Victims with as little job experience as they have. They should cut their teeth in a Precinct Squad first and learn how to conduct an investigation from start to finish before being assigned to a specialty unit like SVU.”
Additional reporting by Joe Marino