Federal prosecutors have launched a probe into the NYPD’s Special Victims Division wanting into whether or not the embattled sex-crimes unit engaged in a “sample or observe” of gender-biased policing, it was revealed Thursday.
Investigators will probe reported systemic points with the division within the nation’s largest police drive, which were ongoing for greater than a decade, the Department of Justice mentioned in a press launch.
“The Department acquired info alleging deficiencies at SVD which have endured for greater than a decade, depriving survivors and the general public of the immediate, thorough, and efficient investigations wanted to guard public security,” officers mentioned.
“These deficiencies allegedly embody failing to conduct fundamental investigative steps and as a substitute shaming and abusing survivors and re-traumatizing them throughout investigations,” they added.


The probe shall be collectively performed by investigators from the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, in addition to the Special Litigation Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Victims of intercourse crimes deserve the identical rigorous and unbiased investigations of their circumstances that the NYPD affords to different classes of crime,” Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the SDNY mentioned in a press release.
“Over the final a number of months, we now have realized regarding info from a wide range of sources of historic points about the way in which the Special Victims Division has performed its investigations for a few years,” Breon Peace, the US Attorney for the EDNY added.



The NYPD didn’t instantly reply to request for remark, however federal authorities mentioned they alerted Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and Mayor Eric Adams, who pledged to cooperate with the probe.