Committee Hearing, December 6, 1999

And so something that may have been a priority last month, if something takes priority over it, then the detective commanders will make that determination and be held to it. 94 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 But those meetings are very valuable. Up at the academy now, new recruits all receive four hours of training by the Special Victims Squad. The physical arrests by investigators are up by 50 percent. Total arrests are up by 55 percent. The investigations are up percent. 9 Search warrants served are up over 100 percent. 10 Just this week, we've -- 11

These percentages 12 are for all crimes? 13 COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: No, no, I'm just 14 talking about the cases that are handled by 15 Captain Moody's folks, Special Victims. 16

Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: In addition to 18 putting in detective investigators and putting in 19 new sergeants and lieutenants over the last year 20 and a half, this week we've just announced the 21 installation of an executive captain at the 22 Special Victims Unit to assist Captain Mooney in 23 his workload, in breaking down and doing good 24 workload analysis. That's similar to what we have on patrol. 95 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 In patrol right now, we have broken it down to patrol districts into A and B 4 districts. The A are the busiest, the 11 A are 5 the busiest. They all have executive captains 6 working with the regular captains. Now in 7 Homicide, we have an executive captain. In 8 Special Victims, we have a captain and an 9 executive captain. 10 Again, to highlight not just the 11 importance of the unit, but recognizing the kind 12 of sophisticated nature of the workload analysis 13 of -- 14

Do you have all of 15 these cases broken down by areas of the city, 16 where they come from, where we're getting the 17 most, and so on? 18 COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Oh, sure, yeah. 19 We have -- at our COMPSTAT meeting, those maps are 20 displayed readily. And I might add -- and then 21 I'll be open to questions that you have, sir. I 22 don't want to go on and on. 23 We have, since I've arrived, tried to, as much as possible, open up the Police Department to outside inspection. And so for example, while 96 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 the COMPSTAT process goes on in most major cities across America, even in large and small police departments, the Philadelphia COMPSTAT meetings are the only ones that are open to the press, where the press can come in. And they're there every Thursday, members of the local press, and they see what we're doing. The only deal is that you can't go to the paper the next day with some case of a confidential nature that may have been discussed. But by and large, the press is aware of what we're doing. We've opened up as much as possible. Similarly, when we have questions (unintelligible) in the press, what is information on background, I have made myself available, but also, I have staff people available. We have tried to be as open as possible in discussing any aspects of any investigations, whether it's in this area or in homicides or narcotics, because I firmly believe in the public's right to know, absent exigent circumstances where you need confidentiality or you need secrecy. By and large, you know, the people are victims and they've got kind of a right to know how the Police 97 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 Department are performing and how well we're going. And the Police Department, I think, is performing quite well. You heard the professor address you in regards to UCR and how valuable it is, and that an awful lot of crime goes unreported. But there are -- that goes to varying degrees. We know, for example, the two most accurately reported crimes, for two very obvious reasons, are homicides and stolen cars. Homicides because the body is there, it gets counted, and there is no effort to somehow categorize that as something else. And then stolen cars, because, for nationwide alarm transmission purposes and also for insurance purposes, those cars are often very accurately reported. If we look at the last two years, in both of the categories, Philadelphia is doing quite well, and I would say, better than most major cities. We are at an 18 decline in homicides last year; this year, a 16 percent decline in homicide. Last year, in stolen cars, it was 14 percent; around 11 or 12 percent will come in this year. 98 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 So we know those areas where it's most accurately reported, we're doing very well, and there's no reason to suspect that we're not doing as we well in other areas, although a better reporting system may argue something differently. The bottom line is, we're constantly trying to improve; we're not settling for what we have now. We know we're not perfect. You know, in the business schools, there's a Japanese term kazon (ph.), which means the effort towards consistent incremental improvement. And that's what we're all about. We are not sitting pat, and we're giving in our best effort to constantly improve how we do police work in the City of Philadelphia.

Thank you, Commissioner. For the record, and knowing that the practices that you have inherited come from the 1980s, the reasons for these hearings are, in essence, that a huge amount of the caseload of the Special Victims Unit, the Rape Unit, were being dumped or being reclassified -- COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yeah. 99 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775

-- under Code 2701. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

And under Code 2625. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Mm-hmm.

Could you give us a picture, if you can, of the background on this and what really has transpired and how many cases, if you can estimate, not that you're going back, obviously, because I don't think you can investigate cases going that far back. But if you can, what are we talking about here? I want to get a picture of what was and what is going to become. What was happening, the nature of it and the extent of it, as you know, and as you can give us a picture so that we can establish a clear record and go forward from here. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yeah. Well, in addition, one of the confusing parts of this whole exercise is, there are three, if you will, three separate categorizations of crimes. One of them is the official UCR, and often the Local Crimes Code does not match up very well with the UCR, and so you have to make, as you're (unintelligible) up the data to report the FBI, you've got to make 100 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 certain adjustments. The laws are different in all 50 states. So you've got the crimes codes on one side and the UCR on the other side. And Philadelphia has been complicated by a thing called the Philadelphia Police Department's Coding Manual, which has created -- on first blush, it looks like a pretty sophisticated system of categorizing a variety of crime complaints and investigations. Upon second look, though, it seems, at least to me, unnecessarily cumbersome, vague. And when I speak to folks within the Department, there seems to be a good, rational basis for it, but quite literally, it would take weeks and weeks, maybe months, of training on how to utilize this. Let me just say for the record that I spent 29 years in the New York City Police Department. There's no such coding like that in the New York City Police Department. They kind of batch 'em: rapes are rapes, burglaries are burglaries, stolen cars is stolen cars, and there's no effort to get down to subcategories. If you need to get into subcategories, you actually go in and almost do it manually, although 101 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 there are some efforts afoot for computerization. So this is an extremely difficult task, in my opinion, which leads further to confusion.

If it leads to confusion, what do you recommend we do with that? Do we just get rid of it? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Well, my sense is that we're in the process of looking at it to revise it and we're going to get some outside help, including people in the ivy league community, to look at this whole issue because it, as I say, it causes confusion. And so my sense is that 2701 is the result -- 2701, for want of a better term, is a category called "Investigation of Person." In New York City, they use the term "Investigate Aided," somebody that needs some kind of assistance or needs some kind of an investigation. And it could go anywhere from somebody that showed up with a gunshot wound so somebody that fell down a flight of stairs and their head is cracked open and is dead, all the way to a missing child. There's a whole host of things that goes into this investigatory category which requires further 102 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 investigation by a detective. And the same here, but some of the things that went into 2701 could have, and more justifiably, gone into other categories based on this crime-reporting system. As a result of that, in the 2701, my sense is, it was used probably improperly for years and years, as almost a catch basin for those you couldn't make a decision on what they were. So often, they were in there. The vast majority, my sense is, we're okay. We could have gone through a different category but they're okay. But the problem is, there are actually some crimes in there, some rapes that were in there, and not all of them were rapes, but there were some rapes in there that required an investigation. It would have been okay to put them in there if there was a correct case-management system in place that would have created a file 22 that would force supervisors to ask, Detective Kenny, what about the this case you have in 2701? Well, that didn't exist, and as a result, there was there was slippage, clearly. 103 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775

Do we have any idea of the numbers? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes.

It says from the information that we gather from the newspaper, it leads to an estimate of a third. Do we have any idea of the numbers and the types of sexual assaults that went into that category 2701? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yeah. I have --

And for what period of time? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yeah. Well, to be quite honest with you, we're not going to be able to go back forever.

Right. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: We are going back for the last five years 'cause there's a thing called "the statute of limitations." And so we have a Quality Assurance Bureau doing that right now. They will go through it, they will categorize what's in there, and then those things that are, in fact, are crimes where somebody's identified them as a rape, and then there are others -- and then those will be investigated. 104 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 And then there are other cases that while they may not be rapes, should have an investigation to determine what happened. They will be investigated. But let me just -- because I think it's an important question you hit on. Let me just give you some examples of some of the other cases that go in there that -- I don't know why they're in there, and there are lots of them like this. And so we have here the complainant is an eight-year-old who, you know, complains that he got into a fight with a child, another child patient, and then the patient kissed him on the hand, a seven-year-old kissed an eight-year-old on the hand goes. This goes into this 2701 investigative person. We have a seven-year-old female complaining about another seven-year-old male, that he pulled his pants down in the rear of an alley. You'll get a situation where a woman wanted to obtain an order of protection against her boyfriend in New York, and she's referred him to New York to get the order of protection. 105 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 But these all wound up in the category 2701. A woman's walking down the street, and a guy approaches her and is basically trying to pick her up, and she made a complaint to the police, but she admits that he didn't say anything lewd or anything like that, he was just trying to pick her up. And another similar situation where a guy tries to pick up a woman on the street and tells the woman's son, you know, I like your mother. But there is nothing more than that in there. We have a situation -- and there's a few like this that come through us through DHS or some outside party. In this case, it's a 16-year-old male. He complains that his father watches him while he takes a shower because he doesn't wash himself well. And so that comes to the attention. So the father's watching the kid on this one and says, You're not cleaning under your arm. So somehow the kid makes this complaint to --

And that's reported 106 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 as a criminal act? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: It's not a criminal, no. It's in 2701, and it's not a criminal act, but it's in the investigatory category, meaning it requires other investigations. Again, going up, telling some woman on the street "I love you," that type, you know, someone trying to pick up a woman on the street. We have a rather sad one here where, in a nursing home, that I won't mention, where a woman of about 80 is having consensual sex with a man of about 70. Both are clearly not in the right mental state, and this is not -- this, apparently is a regular occurrence, and now the nurse is reporting it. But it's consensual on both parties, but it's in a nursing home. We have one where the investigators go out, the detectives go out, and the woman claims, you know, to be Jesus Christ, and that unknown instruments were used to carve up her body. Clearly, somebody not in the right state of mind. And, of course, there's another woman -- not of course, but I'm saying here's another 107 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 case of a woman claiming to have to children, that they'd been kidnapped. And so you get a whole variety. And the unfortunate part is when you put cases like this that make room for this category, then you put other cases in there, every case gets lost in this 2701. So we have, under Captain Mooney, for the last two years, as much as possible forced the investigators, you know, that if it's a rape, make sure that it goes in the rape category. And then if there are further investigation categories, to put cases in other investigatory categories, whether it's a hostile case or some other thing. The bottom line is, while there are thousands -- going back over the last years, while there are thousands of incidents in that 2701, there are not thousands of rapes. And that has got to be made clear 'cause the impression out there, when I speak to my neighbors, I speak to people that there's an impression that there are thousands of rapes out there.

But do we have -- that's what I -- 108 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: I will get the numbers to you, but we're still going back.

I'd like to get the picture of the five-year period. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, and we will get that to you.

And see how that looks. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yeah.

And does that go for 2625? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: 2625 -- you want to jump in, Joe, and explain?

It seems like these two classifications were being used by prior officers just to put sex cases into these kind of areas. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yeah. You want to explain 2625, Joe? CAPTAIN MOONEY: Yes, sir. The 2625 code was felt to be more appropriate --

Identify yourself for the record.

I'm sorry, sir. I'm 109 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 Captain Joe Mooney from the Police Department Special Victims Unit. 2625 is a code that states Investigation Medical for Protection, and it was felt to be a more appropriate code than 2701 for these types of cases that aren't clearly delineated as a crime committed, as the Commissioner just read some 2701s. The 2625s that we receive largely are cases where, for instance, a child may be on a visit with an estranged parent and comes back with an unexplained bruise, and the child doesn't say that anything happened to them, but the custody parent, let's say, wants an investigation conducted to see if abuse occurred. Parents may notice irritation on their children's genitals or something like that nature, again, with no 19 disclosure from the child, but it's felt that there may be something going on there. Cases where a woman victim may be out and taking drugs or drinking in the company of other people, passes out, and wakes up with her clothes in disarray but has no idea if anything happened to her or not, and they want to go to the hospital to get checked 110 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 out. Those are the types of cases that we categorize as 2625. It's not a permanent code, either, I might add. It's evolving. In other words, the numbers are fluid because it may initially be put into that code, and then through our investigation, we determine that indeed a crime has been committed. And in that case, the case is upgraded to the appropriate crime, and the appropriation action is taken.

Captain, what we want to clarify is two things: One, we want to get a clear picture of what the real situation is in terms of this type of violent activity that is taking place in our city. Two, we want to be able to help the Commissioner and yourself to go forward in establishing a system that is clear. We want also to give the citizens of Philadelphia a sense of safety, a sense that we are investigating crimes, as we're supposed to, and that we're not allowing perverts and other individuals to go out there and commit their 111 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 crimes, and because of lack of investigatory action or interviewing or whatever it is, we have classified them and then dumped them and then not followed up. But what I would like to see is a picture coming from these two areas -- 2701, 2625, what is it that we have, and for the last five years, what it looks like. So that we can, we as a City Council, can work with you together to be able to bring a sense of confidence in our department because I think that's -- COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: That sound good.

Because I think that may be the most successful thing, I think, that Commissioner Timoney has done in these last couple of years, is that there's a sense of confident in his integrity and ability to do some things. And I think we have to work together with that to continue that process and opening it up and coming together. So if you can give us the picture. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: When they finish the analysis -- they've almost finished back to 1996, and we have one more year, 1995, and that 112 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 will give you a clearer picture, probably within another week or so. But on the issue of openness, 'cause it really is an issue, and again, as much as humanly possible, without breaching cases, we've tried to open this department up. And in the area of Special Victims, I know there are advocate groups and we have offered the advocate groups to come in and take a look at our coding, and if there's room 11 for improvement, if there's something that we're not doing right, by all means. We're not looking to do this thing in secrecy, and so people with knowledge in this area, with a vested interest in this area, with a good vested interest in this area, we're looking for them. And Chief Maxwell has set up a committee with monthly meetings, and we will allow them to look at his coding. And if we're doing something wrong, you tell us.

What we want is that the training that takes place makes sense. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes.

That it is the right type of training, that we're getting the right 113 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 type of individuals to be able teach the sensitivity that is necessary and so on. And the establishment of facilities, do we need facilities to be able to do this type of investigation in a different type of environment? And, also, I think, Councilman Kenney addressed it and Carol Tracy, the culture within the department, which is the hardest thing to overcome as we seek change. That has to be really identified very clearly, and see how we can begin changing that culture and establishing a new one. Before we go on, I'd like -- myself and Councilman Kenney, I know, have some questions.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, gentlemen. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Good afternoon.

The Inquirer reported that in 1998, Philadelphia had the highest rate of unfounded rape complaints of the ten largest cities in America. Why don't we put more cases in this category than in any other city or seem to be? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Well, a few 114 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 things, I think. One of them is -- I mentioned the COMPSTAT process. When we meet with all our commanders, including the Special Victims commanders and patrol commanders, once a week, when the issue of special victims and rapes came up over the lasts two years, beginning early on, there was encouragement, as much as possible, not to put uniformed officers in the position of having to try and figure it out. If a rape's alleged, classify it as a rape, don't worry about it. The detectives will do the investigation, and if it's unfounded, it will be unfounded, there's no big deal. So we knew we were opening up a larger catch basin. We knew, number one, that the unfounded cases would be higher than previous. But I think you also have to look at the charts that were in the Inquirer. For example, based on the statistics that the Inquirer has put in their paper, we're number 3. And that number is San Antonio, with 27 percent; Dallas is number 2, with 21 percent; and we come in number 3, with 17.8 percent. So when you call those police 115 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 departments to check the numbers, first of all, they denied speaking to any newspaper people. And second of all, they have completely different numbers than appear in the Inquirer. And then when we called the FBI, there was another set numbers. So I don't know what numbers to believe. I'm not overly concerned about a high unfounded rate so long as a thorough and proper investigation is being done. I'd rather have a higher unfounded rate to make sure that we're capturing as many cause as possible and doing an investigation. I just thought it was unfortunate that some folks maintained that at least we're the best lying department in the United States. I mean that's -- that's -- that's a serious charge and should not be leveled lightly, especially under my (unintelligible). I wouldn't put up with that nonsense, and I really resented that. I also resented the tone of the article 22 because we've gone through great efforts -- Chief Maxwell has and Captain Mooney. And the allegations out there that somehow things have been going on since 1983 and that it's still 116 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 business as usual, they've stopped using one category and look, they're using another category. And that's just unfair to all the reforms and all of the changes that Chief Maxwell and Captain Mooney have made and continue to make. And I just, you know -- and people -- I think that's a disservice to the public to create that impression that somehow, we would intentionally engage in that type of conduct. And I just think that's unfortunate.

But that's why these hearings are so necessary. To really -- because unless we have this type of hearing, that type of statement you just made would not get heard. And if those things are not true, the only way for the public to really begin to know that they're not true is for you and Captain Mooney and the other individual who came forward and say that they are not true. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yeah.

And establish in a clear forum what those reforms are. I'm sorry.

That's okay. It's 117 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 been testified to and it's somewhat subjective, but I think it's accurate, that there is a sum percentage element in male society in this country that looks at these types of crimes against women in different ways than the normal person would, in that somehow, these forcible rapes and these sexual assaults were something that the woman was deserving of and she asked for and that she put herself in a position to do. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yeah.

I'm sure that an equal percentage of that wrong belief exists in the Police Department as it does in any level of society. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

Whether they're truck drivers or teachers or whoever. But there are a certain percentage of our officers that perhaps have this type of attitude. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

What are we doing, what can we from a recruit training standpoint? And more importantly, I think, from a training standpoint the officers and the detectives that 118 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 have been in the Department ten years or more? How do we change that culture? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: That's a great question. And the woman two women ago talked about police officer discretion. And it's good to have police a officer's discretion, but you need, whenever possible, to put in systems that limit that discretion, and that our police officers don't have a right to make a call or to believe or not believe a complainant. One of the real disturbing things for me in this series of Inquirer articles was a statement made by a police officer in regards to the rape victim, that they didn't believe the victim, and that -- and it was a female police officer, which really made it troubling because they said, Well, usually people don't delay when reporting rape, usually people don't bathe when reporting a rape. I mean, that's exactly what they do. And so for somebody to say that, to me, it's just so wrong that it, you know, demands looking into. And those two officers had been trained personally by Inspector Tiano. But more importantly, we've got to look 119 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 at the training at the academy, that we're not allowing -- if you still have those beliefs, if you're that stupid, but you can't act out on those wrong beliefs. And so what you do is, you put in systems in place. You tell 'em, Listen, you put down whatever the person says, and then make sure the systems are in place by the detectives that forces them to conduct an investigation. It may turn out to be that way have, but at least have the detectives do an investigation, the whole idea of a case-management system with supervisors oversight. Let me have a final say on the one thing, on the unfounded. A detective now cannot unfound a case. It's got supervisory review, which is three supervisors Joe, that must -- CAPTAIN MOONEY: Two. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Two, two supervisors must approve before a case is unfounded. So as much as possible, we're putting into place a system.

There has been some discussion today about the Frankford Arsenal site as the site of the Special Victims Unit. 120 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

And its lack of conduciveness to serving the needs of victims. Do you have an opinion? Does the captain or the commissioner have an opinion about that site, its flow of traffic and some of the discussions about perpetrators and victims going through the same door and being in the same area? And is there some discussion or evaluation as to a new site, or there other things going on now? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: There are a few things going on now. I've been meeting with, well over the last year, with people from the Child Advocacy Center to set up a stand-alone cohabitated unit of counselors, psychologists, case workers, and detectives. And we've made our commitment to doing that, and so those efforts are afoot to secure a new building for children that become the victims of abuse or sexual abuse or parental abuse or what have you. The issue of the Arsenal, my only -- my only objection in that whole series in the Inquirer, and I don't know if it was related to me correctly, but the question to me was, Timoney, 121 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 the Arsenal is filthy, it's unkempt, it's unsanitary. Do you think you need a new building? And I said, you know, I do not -- I disagree with your characterization of that. The next day in the paper, it says, Timoney thinks the place is fine. I never said that, all right? I understand -- the officers themselves are pretty clean, they're well kept, and the detectives working there are clean, they are manly and everything else. Could you get a better a site? I think so. I think the Arsenal is an imposing building. But by the same token, there's disagreement within the advocacy community. There is a person, who will remain nameless, when I had this discussion in regards to, if there is the ability to get a separate, stand-alone, more congenial, better-located facility, they said, No, it should be in a regular police facility. I said, Well, do you mean going in, back and forth with other, you know, robbery victims? Yes, women are now mature enough, they're past all that. I said, Well, I think I disagree with you, but maybe I'm wrong. 122 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 And there needs to be, I think, a coalescent around what we're looking for, and we're willing to sit down and meet with folks.

Well, I think in addition to the women victims, the children victims, I think, of concern. And I when you go to places like the Child Advocacy Center, there is a conducive, more homey, warming atmosphere. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Absolutely, absolutely.

That allows children to open up more and to feel more safe and secure than they would in even a regular Detective Division. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Absolutely.

Which can be imposing in itself. I mean, one of the things that always have fascinated me about the way in which the police departments, districts, and detective divisions have been set up is, there is this wall with a glass screen, that we're over here and you're over there. And one of the things that I've been impressed with some of the mini stations, the 123 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 South Street Mini Station, for example, is that people can come in and have immediate contact with our uniformed officers, which makes them more of a public servant as opposed to, You're getting on my nerves, why are you bothering me while I'm doing my paperwork and now I have to open this door and talk to you. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right. Well, it looks like I'm staying longer, thank God. This year, the effort should be made towards more improvement, but also better service. And so, for example, I made a joke, but it's a serious matter. I have a hard time getting into the districts myself. (Unintelligible), I have to get buzzed in. This is insane. And so we've got to create an atmosphere where when people walk into a police station, certainly during business hours. You can talk about security late at night, I'll buy that. But you should be able to walk into a police station and talk to a human being and not look over some plexiglass and say, Hello, can I get your attention? That's wrong. And so that will be the effort afoot 124 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 this year. But I can guarantee you that it's not going to go without resistance.

But the original question was that you are working with the advocates. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes.

To try to find either a new location, but if not a new location, then a more conducive -- COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: There are two issues. One is the cohabitation of the Child Advocacy Center. That's on children victims of crimes. Then -- so the Special Victims, which still all work for Captain Mooney, but the number of investigators that we've allotted based on workload will go over with the Child Advocacy Center, and then the rest of them will do the regular Special Victims, i.e., sex-crime investigations. Even with the sex-crime investigations, there's talk about another location other than the Arsenal.

Based on information that is available to us as to the relationship between domestic abuse and child 125 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 abuse going on in the same household, what collaboration, coordination goes on now and may be planned between our domestic-abuse response teams, our special victims investigators and DHS and all of that continuum of people who deal with this family violence problem? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: I mean, there have been -- not just in Philadelphia, but throughout the policing world in the last ten or fifteen years, there really has been a great awakening in this whole issue of domestic violence and child violence and child abuse, and making the connection. If you go on a family fight for domestic violence, you look for signs of child abuse. If go into a child-abuse case, you look for signs of domestic violence. They're interlinked. That's the whole training issue. The beauty of the COMPSTAT process, when you have the (unintelligible) there, you've got the detectives there, you've got the uniform there, who -- sometimes the domestic violence officer works for the district, you've got a domestic-violence investigator that that works for the detectives, the biggest lie in policing across 126 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 this country, both federal, state, and local is that we work well together. We don't work well together, never talk. And so the COMPSTAT process forces people to look at one another and talk and make sure that the ball isn't being dropped. It doesn't mean -- it won't guarantee, but as much as possible, to force people to work together to force the uniformed to work with the detectives, the detectives to work with narcotics, and thing of that nature.

And you believe -- and I know I've talked to you before about this, that you think that is a difficult culture to break down and to get integrated. The detectives don't like the uniforms, the uniforms don't like the detective. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

And we have this problem at the federal level, at the -- COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: The worst are the feds because they have no excuse. They all work for the Attorney General and they all hate one another. 127 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775

Right. But how do we move into the future in breaking down that culture? Is that something that goes -- that we're going to have to do from an academy standpoint, and then as people leave the Department, things will change over time? Or is there something that we can do -- COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Well, I think it really is a constant ongoing process and that if you take your eye off the ball and go back to the old ways, and so I think where COMPSTAT is so valuable is that it forces people, at least once a week, in a formal setting, with the bosses, with myself and the commissioners there asking the right questions and making sure you're touching base and making sure -- I mean, the most important people in the Police Department are the district commanders. Everyone should be servicing the district services 'cause they are the closest to the public, they're the ones that deal with politicians, they deal with me, they deal with the public. And so the detectives really should service them, the narcotics should service them, everything should be servicing the district 128 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 commanders.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Councilman Cohen and then Councilman Nutter.

Commissioner Timoney, your testimony as to bringing about change is very encouraging, but I'd like to deal with that a little bit further. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Sure.

How often have you been meeting, say, with the child advocacy groups? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: We -- I have met at least twice. I went to their annual dinner dance, I visited their location up at 43rd and Chestnut. And I was quite open with them. I started the Child Advocacy Center in Brooklyn. And I make a made a commitment to those folks that we are committed to work with them. The only caveat that I offer up is that I don't want the detectives or the investigators doing counseling or things of that nature, but that we are there to investigate crimes. 129 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 And that process is moving along. It's not moving as swiftly as they would like or I would like, but it's moving along. We have given them our commitment.

Well, I -- let me -- can you tell me the nature -- when you meet with them, what is the nature of the discussion? The reason I raise this is, we're dealing with very difficult fields in which experts differ, where it's very hard to prove anything objectively. Yet, we know things happen, for good or for worse. They deal with the situation day in and day out, and while I'm sure they're not perfect -- anymore than anybody else is perfect -- I think they know more than anybody else knows, and I think that the tenor of conversations ought to be kind of like we're partners together, and that a lot of respect should be paid to their attentions. I'm not saying you don't pay respect to them. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

But I'm saying I think they're the real experts in the field. And 130 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 I think unless the Police Department and they really develop a close working relationship, we're always going to have more problems than we ought to have. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

This is a very difficult field. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yeah.

Because these type of crimes involve emotions almost more than any other kind of crimes. And that's the reason I would like you to consider -- and I'd like to do the same thing with the child advocacy people. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

I think both sides ought to consider how they react to each other. I think there ought to be more meetings together. And in your answer to that, one other thing, the last comment you made concerned me a little bit 'cause I don't understand it. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Go ahead, sir.

You said you wanted to make clear to them that the detectives don't do counseling. 131 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

And I kind of feel that every police officer involved in this kind of charge of a crime or study of an incident, an investigation of an incident, that counseling is almost a part of his job, that he's got to be in a position to make the person he's inquiring from feel comfortable, that he's going to get the right kind of answer. If you could just include that in our answer. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Well, let me just elaborate 'cause maybe I misled you. No, by all means, I could not agree with you more. But what I was talking about, the way these cohabitation centers are set up, you have a child psychologist on board, there's a social worker, there may be someone from the board of eduction, child advocates, and you've got detectives. The role of the detective in that sayings is to conduct the investigation. If the child psychologist doesn't show up or the school's counselor or some social worker doesn't show up, I 132 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 don't want the detectives now sitting down. They're not trained or equipped. That's the type of work I'm talking about.

I think everybody would agree with that. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: That's all I meant. I don't want them all of a sudden pinch hitting as the child psychologist. That's not there job. And that's the only thing I offered up. And I had one bad experience up in New York like that when we did the pilot. And then when I did the Child Advocacy Center in Brooklyn, that was one of the caveats that -- one of the reasons why you set up is, you have to have professionals that are trained in that area. They, by and large, will (unintelligible) the questions. The detectives -- you do it so that they all sit around so that the child is not repeating the same story to three or four different agencies with different approaches on them, 'cause they're all staying together and they're questioning is being guided usually by one individual. 133 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 It doesn't mean that the detective can't ask a question, but by and large, you're reducing the trauma involved with going from one agency to the next to the next.

Well, the reason I asked about the content of the discussions that may take place when you meet with them arises from the testimony about the Frankford Arsenal. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, sir.

I think they made such an absolutely clear case for the need for a change as quickly as possible. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes.

But I didn't hear from them any complaints about the dirt; I heard from them complaints about the place not being -- on other grounds, not being a good place. It's difficult to get to. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

You, because you're new to Philadelphia, may not understand that as much as those of us who are lifelong residents, but to go from where I've ever lived, and I'm a native of Philadelphia, to go to Frankford 134 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 Arsenal, I wouldn't know how to begin to get there. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

If I had to advise a constituent as to how to get there. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right. I understand.

It seems to me this ought to be a central location, it ought to be a place that somehow comports to the nature of the problem. It ought to be a warm, friendly atmosphere because it's inviting people who have already been severely traumatized by the incident. And it would seem to me that there ought to be very quick activity on this. It's not the kind of situation I think that ought to be long studied. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes.

They're the experts in the field, particularly with reference to the emotional response of people who are victims. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Right.

And so I'd like to just urge upon you, you know, to consider them as 135 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 real allies. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: And, again, I may have -- your question to me was, how many times have I met with them? Well, I've met with them at least two or three times, including having gone to their annual dinner dance, and then going to their location. But Captain Mooney, Joe, jump in. I mean, I don't meet with them on a regular, but certainly he does. And so what are the efforts afoot. CAPTAIN MOONEY: As I did in my position Special Victims Unit, I'm on the Board of Directors for the Children's Advocacy Center, so I meet with at every board meeting, I think, four times a year, along with myself and my boss Inspector Kirchner (ph.). In addition to that, I send to representative to LECAP meetings, if you're familiar with that advocacy group, and DHS protocol meetings. And I also send officers every week to the Children's Advocacy Center for protocol interviews. So we meet regularly. The Commissioner 136 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 personally maybe does not, but the Department, in the person of me or a subordinate of mine.

Could I urge a quick consideration on the Frankford Arsenal. Because I know the first decision has to be yours, and then the red tape really begins. You know, when we begin to get in other departments that don't talk to each other in the City. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, sir.

And where we've got to finally arrive at a decision. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, sir.

So I'd just like to finally urge, on that simple thing on physical location, to try to move the decision along on that, to get the kind of environment that I think victims will feel comfortable in. I think that's the main consideration we've got to have. That's why the separation of entryways for the victims from the perpetrators is so important. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Councilman Nutter?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 137 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 Commissioner, I won't add to the record our discussion over the rail which had to also do with the same issue about location for a new facility. All I would ask is if you could forward to us, through the Chair -- I don't know for the Police Department whether you do your own location searches for the different units or if you work with or through public property, which kind of does it for the entire city. They, from time to time, seem to be able to come up with different facilities. I don't know what the needs are, I don't know what the design issues are. I'm sure you'll talk with the advocates about those kinds of issues. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, sir.

From the map that we were shown -- I've never seen the facility, but I don't get the impression that it's a huge place, but I'm sure it needs some special design elements, and if you could just let us know through, the Chair -- COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, sir.

-- about the progress of this particular, it issue might help 138 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 to bring it to some closure. And I'm sure you've had great support from the Council about that. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, sir.

What I want to ask very quickly is, one, I'm not sure if you were here at the time at the moment that Mr. Cervone and Miss Tracy were testifying, but Mr. Cervone left us testimony, and there are somewhere -- about or bullet points that he had in his 11 testimony. I won't walk you through them, but I'd 12 like to make sure that you get a copy or I'll give 13 you my copy. There are bullet points of issues, 14 procedural issues, operational issues, and 15 concerns that many of the advocates have. 16 And what I would ask is, after you've 17 had a chance to look at it and maybe talk to the 18 advocate groups, I'd like to get your response and reaction to these items. Again, if you could communicate that through the Chair, I would really appreciate it. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Okay.

Lastly, Commissioner, do you or Captain Mooney have any particular perspective, or can you share some 139 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 information with us? I'm told often that groups may be able to testify with more specificity. In the area of domestic violence, it seems to occur from time to time that, as does, unfortunately, often happen, the male attacks the female. The female may, in fact, retaliate or try to defend. The police arrive on the scene, and from time to time the, female is arrested and taken into custody. In one case I'm very familiar with, the male hit the woman either with a board or a two-by-four. This is a male who had previous domestic-violence issues with this particular female, including one attempt to throw her off of an el platform on a previous occasion. He hit her with a board or a two-by-four, and she responded by stabbing him. The police arrived on the scene, and she was arrested, taken into custody, charged, and was incarcerated for some period of time until she subsequently made bail. I think three or four court hearings later, the case was finally dismissed. I believe it was a lack of prosecution. 140 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Mm-hmm.

Now, I understand that the lady did stab the guy, and I know that a knife is a weapon. But the question was asked, Well, why wasn't the male arrested since he hit her with a board? And the response was, Well, the board was not a weapon. And I guess it depends on what side of the board you're on, as to whether or not the board is a weapon. This is a very comfortable chair, but if I pick up it and hit someone with it, they might be a little upset about it. So, I mean, are women being arrested in these retaliation situations? COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Well, first of all, whoever said that a board is not a weapon is wrong; it's clearly a weapon. And so if they said that, they're wrong, they don't know what they're talking about. There's a whole issue in the area of domestic violence, and as police departments and federal legislation, local legislation, has moved towards a pro-arrest or a mandatory-arrest policies, there has been some confusion as a 141 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 result of federal legislation, going back two years ago, where they mistook the issue of mandatory arrest policy to go and arrest both parties. And so we saw across this country, not just men being arrested but women being arrested. And it was a wake-up call for police departments across the country to train the police officers as much as possible to identify the primary aggressor, lock up the primary aggressor, and then when they go to court, the judge will kind of sort it all out. Having said that, if you're an officer faced with a situation and you don't know -- all of these situations, by the way, it's one person alleging something against the other. If there was no clearly physical evidence of injuries as a result of the board as there was with a knife, I guess they may have --

The woman suffered a black eye, a cut on the face, very visible disfigurement, to the extent that when she was taken to lockup, lockup refused to accept her for fear that they would get in trouble or be charged 142 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 with having done something with her, and told the police, We will not take her take her, you take her to the hospital first. We will not accept intake at this point because the woman was beaten so bad. But she was arrested. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Well, that probably shouldn't have happened that way. And my sense is, given this situation, if I was the officer responding and I had a hard time identifying the initial aggressor, if you will, I would run it by the DA. But there should have only been one arrest in that situation. And so I don't -- you know, it's a tough call. If you gave me the specifics, I will have an investigation conducted and then will personally get back to you and find out what happened there. But absent that case, in the vast majority of cases, the idea for the police officer is to go try and identify, through observation and inquiry, who is the primary aggressor, and then effect an arrest. We don't have a mandatory-arrest police; we have a pro-arrest policy. And so even with where a woman were to say, Listen, just get him away from me, I don't 143 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 want him arrested, if she's clearly bruised up, the officer really hasn't got a choice; he's got to lock him up. And that's a pro arrest policy.

Mm-hmm, okay. Thank you. I'll get back to you on the details of that. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, sir.

Thank you.

There's been a request by a couple members of the committee that you take the time to walk us through Directive 107. It's not my request, so I'm not --

Go ahead. It was mine. Yes, I'd like to -- if I'm a rape victim and I go into the Police Department, what happens to me? What is a 107? CAPTAIN MOONEY: Councilman, Directive 107 is the Police Department's procedural directive entitled "Rape and Other Sex Offenses," and it outlines the investigative policies and the response policies of the Special Victims Unit and certain aspects of uniform patrol in response to a victim of rape. If a woman reports a rape to the 144 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 police, she calls 9-1-1, and a uniformed officer responds. An at that point, depending upon when the incident occurred, she will be taken to the hospital if she's injured, obviously, or if she needs initial or emergency treatment.

Taken to the hospital by whom? CAPTAIN MOONEY: I'm sorry sir?

By whom? CAPTAIN MOONEY: By the police officer, by the police officer who responds. If she does not need medical attention for injuries or whatever, in most cases, she's still taken either to Jefferson Hospital or to Episcopal Hospital, where there's a rape crisis center. And at that point, the Special Victims Unit is notified, and then an investigation is begun.

What does the investigation comprise? CAPTAIN MOONEY: Well, the investigation would begin with the interview of the complainant. And the medical personnel, if --

Who interviews the 145 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 complainant? CAPTAIN MOONEY: The Special Victims Unit investigator who's assigned. I should, I guess, continue with the continuum here. After the Special Victims Unit is notified of the victim at the hospital by the uniformed officer, an investigator is assigned immediately by a Special Victims Unit supervisor. At that point, the investigation begins. We're trying our best to -- one of the things that when I went to Special Victims, one of the things that I've been trying to stress is the prompt response to these complaints so that if an investigator, if we're not overly burdened, will immediately respond to a hospital, and another investigator will go to the crime scene, if any, in an effort to collect evidence and to interview the victim. But the victim would be interviewed. If there are witnesses available that the uniformed police are aware of, they would also be interviewed. We would -- if there's a crime scene, an investigator will respond to the crime scene along with our Crime Scene Unit and collect 146 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 any physical evidence that may be there. We take photographs of the scene. In certain cases, sketches are made.

Is the woman interviewed, and is the interviewer usually a man or a woman? And what -- how do you see that? CAPTAIN MOONEY: I'm sorry, sir?

Is the woman interviewed? Is she interviewed by a man or a woman? What sort of atmosphere is she interviewed in? CAPTAIN MOONEY: Well, it depends on where the interview takes place. Like I said, we try to get a prompt response at the hospital so that we're able intelligently assess the crime scene, if there is if any, and to intelligently pursue any witnesses, or possible witnesses, to the crime, so we have to have kind of an idea of what happened in order to do that. Absent an interview at the hospital, the victim would be interviewed at the Special Victims Unit. We have a couple of interview rooms there that are private. The investigator and the victim would be in those rooms, and that's where 147 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 the interview would take place.

Are there women present, social workers, psychologists, individuals? Or is it just the police presence? CAPTAIN MOONEY: It's, generally speaking, it's just the police. If the victim requests a counselor or a family member or something to be present during the interview, we see to that request. But, generally, the police officer and the victim are together.

Is the interviewer usually a male? CAPTAIN MOONEY: Depending on who's assigned to the investigation. It could be a male or it could be a female. It's not a protocol to always have a female interviewing.

What happens to that report? CAPTAIN MOONEY: Well, the interview's taken and reviewed by a supervisor, along with the investigator. And the necessary further steps would be taken as to what the interview would lead us to. You know, for instance, if the complainant states that it happened in a certain area, we 148 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 would go back out to that area with other investigators and do neighborhood surveys, knock on doors and ask people if they saw anything and try to get witnesses who may have witnessed some part of this incident. And we have to know what kind of physical evidence there may be. There may be -- before we interview the complainant, we would not know, for instance, that a certain item that would be in a household was used as a weapon in this case. But to the person who didn't know anything about the case, going into the room, wouldn't think nothing of it. But after he interviewed the complainant, he would know that this water pitcher, for instance, was used to strike the complainant. So we would want that water pitcher as evidence.

Are any DNA samples taken? CAPTAIN MOONEY: Pardon me, sir?

Are DNA samples taken? CAPTAIN MOONEY: Yes. When the victim's examined at the table, what's called a rape kit is taken by a physician at the hospital, 149 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 and that kit consists of swabs that are taken to try to get DNA evidence from the perpetrator.

Commissioner, because we have a long hearing, I'd like to just give you a series of questions that I have. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, sir.

And for you to then bring it back so that we can make it a part of the record. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, sir.

Because we have a long list of people that want to testify. But one more thing before you leave. I'm interested in looking at something along the lines as to the Brooklyn Center that you have described. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Yes, sir.

And seeing and working together with your department to see how we can begin trying to establish and implement within the City of Philadelphia a coordinated type center along the lines as what I've gotten to know from talking to the advocates at the Brooklyn Center. And I plan to make a visit to the 150 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 Brooklyn Center within the next week or so. So I'd like to begin and I would like to see coming out of these hearings a recommendation to the Mayor-elect that we begin looking at establishment of a center of this type. I know that you had a lot to do with the one in Brooklyn, and I know that we can work together to begin seeing how we can do that here. I want to thank you. There are no 11 other questions. I will send you the questions today. And, again, hopefully, we can work on that very quickly. Thank you very much. COMMISSIONER TIMONEY: Thank you, sir. CAPTAIN MOONEY: Thank you.

Richard Birns, Chris Kirchner. (Witnesses come forward.)

Please sit down and identify yourself for the record.

My name is Richard Birns, President of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Children's Alliance. With me is Chris Kirchner, Executive Director of the 151 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 alliance. The Alliance is a public-private partnership formed ten years ago by the Police Department, the Department of Human Services, the District Attorney's Office, and the Philadelphia community of child advocates. In the words of our mission statement, the Alliance was formed in order to bring about permanent change in Philadelphia's response to victims of child abuse, a change that would lessen the trauma and promote the healing of child victims and their families. Today's hearings were called to examine the operations of the Police Department's Special Victims Unit. As Frank Cervone told you this morning, fully 68 percent of the caseload of that unit consists of the investigation of sexual and physical crimes against children. Each year in the City of Philadelphia, more than 2,000 children are subjected to sexual abuse. More than 500 more children are beaten so badly as to constitute a criminal assault. That's over 2500 children a year, 7 children every day. Investigation of sexual and physical crimes against these children, as I said, makes up 152 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 nearly 70 percent of the work of the SVU. In addition, as described in some detail in our written testimony, reports regarding these same children must be investigated by the City's Department of Human Services. In the course of these dual investigations, a 7-year-old girl may typically be required to tell the story of her sexual abuse five or more times to as many different investigators, all of whom are strangers to her. She might be typically required to do this in a number of different locations, all of which are at least intimidating and unfamiliar, and some of which, like the Frankford Arsenal, are downright scary. And this whole process might stretch out for weeks, not infrequently five or six weeks, after the abuse is first reported. Obviously, this process can be highly traumatic for child victims. What's more, it is highly inefficient in holding perpetrators accountable. In cases of child sexual abuse, the key evidence against the perpetrator, sometimes the only evidence, is the testimony of the child victim. Yet discovering and preserving that 153 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 testimony is fraught with difficulty. While research on children's memory tells us that even very young children can testify accurately, it also tells us that when children are subjected to multiple, unconnected interviews, the accurate recollection can become hopelessly mixed up with and even indistinguishable from material introduced by the interviews themselves. Moreover, both younger and older children can be subject to strong emotional conflicts in deciding whether to testify against a perpetrator who may be a trusted loved one. Child witnesses may be subjected to pressures from witnesses non-offending caretakers, who may be the mother of the victim, but also the wife or lover of the perpetrator. You can imagine the impact on such a child of a seemingly unending series of interviews, each one asking variations on the same questions. Often she concludes that they must not believe her; often, she just shuts down. We can do a better job. For ten years, the Police Department and DHS, with the help of the Children's Alliance, have sought to improve the system by finding ways to combine the separate 154 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 police and DHS investigations into a single efficient, child-friendly investigation, in which police officers and DHS workers would work together for the benefit of victims. Almost everyone concerned has concluded that these collaborative investigations will be possible only if we reform the system to co-locate the police and DHS investigators in a new, child-friendly, state-of the-art facility.

Chris Kirchner will tell you in a moment a little bit more about what co-location would be like. Our proposal is also detailed in our written testimony. Our proposal for co-location has the support of virtually everyone concerned. Captain Mooney has recommended it to Commissioner Timoney, and you just heard the Commissioner say that the Department has made its commitment to move forward. DHS has stated that it is committed to the concept of co-location and will work with all stakeholders in determining the appropriate structure, process, policies, and procedures for a co-located facility in Philadelphia. 155 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 District Attorney Lynn Abraham recently written to Chris Kirchner to renew her commitment to a co-located facility for the investigation of child abuse in Philadelphia. The victim advocates here today are united in their support for co-location. And we have every reason to believe that the incoming Street administration will be equally supportive. Mr. Chairman, this committee should act to make sure that the issue of co-location is high on the agenda of the incoming City Council and the incoming administration. City Council should commit itself to reducing the trauma and promoting the healing of child victims who are some of our most vulnerable citizens. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. I think the issue is not dirt at the Frankford Center. It's not dirty, it's not about whether about it's dingy or whatever it is. I think the issue is about having a center, one, that is coordinated and also all of the right people are within and accessible to each other.

Exactly. The issue is one 156 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 single coordinated investigation versus two separate uncoordinated investigations.

So that we don't have things that wait a couple of months to get to DHS, and by that time, who knows where all of the facts or the individuals are going to be.

That's exactly right. As Frank Cervone explained this morning, under the current system, what happens depends very heavily on whether the person who reports the abuse dials 9-1-1 or dials of DHS hotline. If a reporter calls 9-1-1, they get a police investigation that begins immediately and frequently ends in a day or so, in relatively clear cases. While that report is supposed to be made to DHS again and investigated by DHS, as Frank reported this morning, number one, that doesn't always happen.

And it doesn't get there within a reasonable amount of time.

Right. And, number two, even when it does happen, it happens some days or as much as a week or more later, and a second investigation happens two or three weeks after the police investigation was completed. 157 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 On the other side, if a reporter dials the DHS hotline, a DHS investigation begins almost immediately. DHS reports to the police, but the police investigation may not begin for some weeks.

Very good. I mentioned the Brooklyn Center to Commissioner Timoney, and I think we, sort of as an example as something that seems from the reports and my conversation with the advocates, has been one that seems to be one that should be a model for maybe here in Philadelphia.

The Brooklyn Center is certainly one of our models. Other big-city centers that can effectively serve as models for Philadelphia are in Dallas, Texas, and in Houston, Texas, and in a number of other large and museum-sized city.

All right.

I was not here in the morning at the outset 'cause I had to be at another meeting with senior citizens. But tell me, is there anything in the material we have that clearly outlines what the proposal of the advocates is? 158 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775

I think the written testimony that we submitted, that was rather too lengthy to plan to give orally, does detail the proposal in three or four pages.

'Cause I have the strong feeling that this is the time to strike. The budget sessions -- if there's money needed, there will be budget sessions open shortly. If you miss the beginning of this administration, if you miss that point of time, you might have to wait a long, long time. And when I saw "you wait," I mean the people of Philadelphia wait. And I think this requires such urgent attention that I just think we've got to be ready by budget time to deal with any budget aspects that would be required. And I think, at the same time, we have to be tackling whatever reorganization of departments might be necessary. Does your plan call for people working together as if they're in one unit?

The plan would call for the division of the present Special Victims Unit into one unit. We estimate consisting of 20 to 30 159 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 officers, which would investigate soley crimes against children, sexual and physical crimes against children. A separate unit would investigate sex crimes against adults.

Now, both of those units are in the Police Department?

Exactly.

So they would not require any action of changing departments. That could be done internally by the Police Commissioner?

That's correct.

'Cause they would all be located in one place.

The unit that investigates crimes against children would be located in a new facility where also would be located a portion of DHS's intake services. And those DHS investigators would work the same reports as the police officers worked.

And who would be in charge administratively?

Each agency would be in charge of its own investigators. There would be 160 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 no blurring of lines of authority within the Police Department or within DHS. So DHS investigators, within this facility, would report to DHS supervisors and up the DHS hierarchy. And similarly, police officers within the facility would report to their police superiors and up the police hierarchy. The facility would also contain staff of the Children's Alliance, which would handle administrative affairs. There may be some expert interviewers employed by the center and so on.

And who would employ them?

I'm sorry?

Who would employ these expert interviewers from the advocacy group?

The private nonprofit. The Philadelphia Children's Alliance is a private, nonprofit organization whose Board of Directors consists of DHS administrators, police administrators -- Captain Mooney told you that he's a member of the board -- and private citizens. 161 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775

And which City agency would invite them to come and share the physical space? I'm trying to find out if this all can be done without any new legislation.

DHS and the Police Department would invite them to share the space.

Probably the Police Department, because it would probably be Police Department's space.

Well, it could be Police Department space or it could be DHS space, or it could be owned or leased by the private nonprofit. I'm not sure that who owns or leases the space particularly matters. I can imagine circumstances in which it would be administratively easier if the Philadelphia Children's Alliance ceased to be a private nonprofit and became a City agency of some sort, but I think that many different models of who owns the space and so on and so forth could work. But the key is that the police investigators and the DHS investigators --

May I just suggest 162 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 to you that if there are many models floating out that that's the model for delay, we could spend the next ten years deciding, Is this model preferable to this other model? And in government, we can justify long debates. I would like to suggest that the child advocacy group come to some decision and then recommend that.

I can understand that, and our recommendation is that the Children's Alliance would own or lease the facility and sublease or simply provide space to the police officers and to the DHS investigators.

And is the Alliance prepared to foot the bill?

Well, not entirely. The Alliance is prepared to be the lead in seeking the necessary funding, and our first donor on our list would be this Council.

We will take our lead, I think, from a model such as the one in Brooklyn and see how that was structured and see how we can adapt that to the Philadelphia realities. 163 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775

So what you're really talking about is not the Child Alliance really taking the property, but that the City of Philadelphia, under some proposal, pay for the property?

That's --

I'm just trying to get down to the facts 'cause otherwise, these questions are going to be coming up at some later time, each one of which is going to justify six months, a year, two years of debate. And I'm suggesting that you try to analyze, through the process that I'm going through, every conceivable issue, deal with it, and be ready to act. What I'm suggesting is that you ought to be engaged in maybe a three-month intensive period, beginning right now, of trying to bring this together. Otherwise, I'm fearful you may very well have a very long wait.

And that is exactly our plan, Councilman.

All right, thank you.

Thank you for this 164 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 opportunity I just have a few --

Identify yourself for the record, please.

My name is Chris Kirchner. I've been the Director of the Philadelphia Children's Alliance for the past eight years. For the past ten years, as you have already heard from our Board President, Mr. Birns, the Children's Alliance has worked with the Police Department, DHS, the District Attorney's Office, Children's Hospital, and various other medical and mental-health agencies to develop policies and protocols for collaborative investigations in cases of child sexual abuse. Our two main purposes in doing this are to reduce additional trauma to children caused by various interventions that take place when there's an allegation of abuse and to improve the quality of the investigations, thus improving our ability to protect children. After years of discussing, planning, and implementation of coordinated child-abuse investigations by all involved agencies, we have 165 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 come to the conclusion that Philadelphia will never be able to intervene in these cases in a way that will best support children and the investigative process without some structural change. Thus, we bring to you today our plan for a facility that would co-locate representatives from key agencies to conduct coordinated state-of-the-art interventions. Providing high-quality, state-of-the-art services for abused children first require a central place where children can feel safe and be treated with respect and dignity. Together with City agencies, we plan to build or renovate a facility that puts the child's needs for safety and comfort first. The agencies to be housed at this facility would, of course, participate in all aspects of planning. The facility should be located in Center City, easily accessible by public transportation. It will include waiting rooms for younger and older children and will be designed with aspects of child development in mind. Interview rooms will be equipped with state-of-the-art audio and viewing systems, with 166 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 observation rooms that allow investigators to sit comfortably and watch. Offices for professionals should include rooms to meet privately with families, teen conferencing areas, and individual office areas. Visitors to the facility will immediately get the message that children in Philadelphia come first. Children will get the message that this is a place where caring adults will take the time to listen to them. In many cases of child sexual abuse, perpetrators are skilled at making children think that they caused the abuse, that they did something wrong. And, certainly, our current police facilities at the Arsenal do send that message, with a security gate, barbed wire, a freight elevator, and a closet-sized waiting room. More important than the facility will be the inter-agency coordination and collaboration that take place at the site. We're proposing to co-locate 20 to 30 police officers and administrators 20 to 30 DHS social workers and supervisors, several assistant district attorneys, 167 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 and medical professionals. The Children's Alliance staff would move to the facility as well. Co-locating investigators will ensure that all agencies will be present child interviews and at all stages of the investigation. The first response would consist of a police officer and a DHS social worker. Depending on the case, they might visit the child at home or bring the child to the facility for an interview. Interviews at the Alliance could include forensic interviewers from our staff, medical professionals, child advocates, and/or prosecutors, depending on the case. If there is a need to bring a child back for a second or third interview, this could be done with the same interview team. Medical exams conducted on site could be done on the same day as the interview or scheduled for a later date, depending on the case.

Either way, medical professionals would be on site and would consult with the interview team immediately. Prosecutors would be available to review cases throughout the intervention. Victim advocates will greet children 168 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 upon their arrival to the Children's Alliance Building. This advocate will be a liaison with the family and professionals at the facility. The child and the non-offending caretaker will be introduced to their team, the police officer and DHS social worker assigned to the case. If a medical exam is called for, they will also be introduced to medical staff at the appropriate time. The Alliance will identify a network of mental-health service-providers to work with the multidisciplinary team at the facility to facilitate timely referrals for mental-health services. Information and support groups will be held for non-offending caretakers. Onsite case review meetings involving the entire team will be implemented to review every single case at set points in the investigation prosecution process to ensure coordinated follow-up and dispositions. If an arrest is planned, Alliance staff will refer the child to Court School, and an appropriate court advocate will be identified. A case-tracking system will be developed that will track the dispositions and other case-relevant 169 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 information and could also be used for program evaluation and ongoing training program-building. Children's linguistic development and child development will be supplemented by team-building and cross-training opportunities. An onsite library would contain agency-specific policies and procedures and current periodicals related to child abuse. A management team consisting of the top-level professionals from each agency would meet regularly to review activity at the facility and to develop policies and protocols. I would like to emphasize that each agency would continue to follow its own mandates and would continue to be supervised by its established chain of command. DHS social workers would not be asked to do police work and vice versa. On the contrary, professionals would be better able to maintain their own role, knowing fully that the other professionals in the facility were taking care of their own jobs. It is anticipated that cases will be handled in a more timely manner, with less additional trauma to children, more services 170 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 available to family, and improved outcomes for abused children. Child abuse is a community concern. No 5 one agency or profession alone can prevent or treat the problem. We have a legal, ethical, and moral responsibility to assume an active role in responding to the abuse of children. Philadelphia's deserve the best possible response. A co-located facility that includes coordinated interviews, team investigation, state-of-the-art training and equipment, victim support services, and a child-family environment is imperative if we are serious about protecting our children.

I think that the point's been very well made today, even with the agreement of the Commissioner, that we need a place, a co-located place, at which these things can happen. Councilwoman Miller, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to -- I don't know your name. 171 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775

I'm Miss Kirchner.

Okay. You've described -- I asked the question earlier about what would be the design for a good approach.

Mm-hmm.

And I keep hearing during these hearings that people have been investigating for years how other states and cities are handling this and have put together a good coordinated team approach. Can you tell me what values have been presented here in Philadelphia? Because I can't understand why it is not working, people have not had an open ear to change for improvement.

Well, you're right. We've been working -- and I think several questions address that. We've been working for ten years to effect a collaborative approach and have been only able to reach 10 to 15 percent of cases the way we would like to. And we think there are lots of reasons. One reason is that we don't have a mandate. Agency heads were not willing to mandate that cases be handled collaboratively, but to a 172 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 certain extent, for a good reason. The perception was that it takes more resources to respond immediately. So resources were certainly an issue and a reason why, I think, folks were reluctant to issue a mandate for collaborative investigations. I can tell you that the way the protocols at the Advocacy Center, or now the Children's Alliance, are written now, the police have said, We will do our best to be there for joint interviews as often as possible. What we found in the first several years of operation was that we would schedule an appointment for later in the week. You know, DHS would call, and the police officer would get called to court. And the DHS worker would come and the family would come, and the police officer couldn't be there 'cause they got called to court on another case. It took us several years to understand issues like that, which seem very simple. It did take a year or two to get people to agree that social workers and cops could do interviews together. To be perfectly honest, we had that discussion for a while in Philadelphia where, finally, we brought everybody to the table 173 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 and said, What do you ask kids, DHS? What do you ask kids, Police? What does the prosecutor need to know, what do the hospital need to know? And we laid it all out on the table and found out, indeed, their purposes for investigating may be different, but the means of conducting the investigation and in talking to that child were very similar, and we created an interview guideline that met the needs of all agencies, but that was child-friendly. In the current protocols, the police agreed to do joint interviews on 5- to 12-year-olds. They did not feel like they had the resources to commit to having an officer at the center on every single child. So resources are certainly an issue around, you know, why it's been difficult to do this. So we haven't has a mandate, we haven't had the resources. It's taken a while to get folks to agree that they should even be at the table together and that being at the table will enhance their investigations.

Right. Thank you. One other question. And maybe this was 174 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 asked, I don't know. I tried to get back up here when Commissioner Timoney was here, but I was tied up in another meeting. How many reports of child abuse or sexual abuse happens per week?

Well, in 1998, there were an average of 116 reports per month to DHS. Now, you have to understand that those are the intrafamilial cases, those are the cases that the perpetrator is known to the child. Not all of those cases rise to the level of a police report. About two-thirds of those do. So DHS makes sure that a police report is filed. One-third of those might involve nebulous sexual acting-out by a child, and there's no disclosure, there's just behavior that is of concern. Those do not usually rise to the level of a police report. So DHS is looking at a group of cases that they just investigate, and then if they get more information, they file a police report. On about 80 cases a month, DHS then files those with the police, and there is a joint police -- or there is -- are two investigations. Then there's also a category of cases 175 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 that I do not have the number for, which are cases investigated by the police that do not, in turn, have DHS investigations. If it's a stranger assault, it would not go to DHS. So there is a group child sexual-abuse cases that involve both DHS and the police, and then there are some that involve only DHS, and then some that involve only the police. And we haven't always been able to put our hands on those numbers. We do know as a fact that in 1998, there were an average 116 a month reported to DHS; and in 1997, that average was 120 per month.

Okay. But at least for the 5- to 12-year-olds, the whole interviewing process has been streamlined now because of the cooperation between DHS and the Police Department?

Well, not completely. The police have agreed to have a police officer available on all cases that originate at DHS, at the center for a joint interview. And it is somewhat complicated. If it's a 9-1-1 call and it's a 7-year-old, the police are going to investigate 176 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 immediately, and DHS is going to be later on in that investigation. If the case goes to DHS first, those are the cases where the police have agreed to have an officer available Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you came to our facility tomorrow morning at 9:30, there would be a police officer, a DHS worker, a family, and one of our forensic interviewers. And that's the way we would want it. Although even on those cases with the 5- to 12-year-olds, where the police have guaranteed, it's up to the individual DHS worker if they would choose to have a joint interview at the center or not.

Okay. So we really need to get a mandate from the commissioners to deal with this. And I do want to agree that the center should be centrally located. If I had to go to Frankford right now, I'd have to call SEPTA to try to find out how to get there on the bus and all of that. It's too far out. I mean, it may be good for people that live in that direction, but we're talking citywide. 177 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Deb Callahan, Stacey Walsh, Carol Johnson. Women Organized Against Rape. Please come forward and identify yourself for the record. It's been very interesting. (Witnesses come forward.)

Councilman Ortiz, members of the Public Safety Committee, members of Councilman's staff, my name is Carole Johnson, and I'm the Executive Director of Women Organized Against Rape. And thank you for the opportunity to present testimony about the response of the Philadelphia Police Department to sexual-assault complaints. With me today are Deborah Callahan, WOAR's Director of Counseling; and Stacey Walsh, our Crisis Intervention Coordinator. These two women have daily contact with sexual-assault survivors and see up close and firsthand the strengths and weaknesses of the police response to 178 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 the women and children who are victims of these brutal crimes.

Miss Johnson, put the microphone closer to you, okay. It's a very bad system.

How's that? Okay. Since its founding in 1973, Women Organized Against Rape has provided education and training about sexual violence, as well as an array of direct services to survivors of sexual assault in Philadelphia. Our direct services include a 24-hour hotline staffed with trained volunteers and paid staff, accompaniment to hospital emergency rooms, the Criminal Justice Center, and Family Court. We offer advocacy and referral services to aid victims in their encounters with the medical, mental-health, legal and social-service professions. I am proud to say in 1981, WOAR was instrumental in the establishment of the Sex Crimes Unit, which is now the Special Victims Unit the Philadelphia Police Department. The Special Victims Unit was an important innovation of the victim's sensitive processing and investigation of 179 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 sexual-assault complaints. But it has developed serious systemic problems interviewing with its ability to respond appropriately to rape survivors. These problems include: The unfounding, downgrading, or miscoding of sexual-assault complaints and the failure to investigate viable complaints; Staffing, supervision, and training problems, which manifest themselves is insulting, skeptical, and judgmental attitudes towards certain survivors; and unduly harsh and inflexible police procedures that retraumatize women and children who are already suffering from great fear and anguish; And an inaccessible and forbidding physical environment at the at the Special Victims Unit itself. Make no mistake, in our experience, many Special Victims Unit officers have proven to be highly professional, well-trained, and compassionate. I remember when I was a volunteer, there was an incident where there was a Special Victims Unit officer who worked the phones with me. We were both on an overnight shift and we had 180 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 to find a shelter bed for a survivor who had been beaten, raped, and had nowhere to go after she left the hospital. When we finally found an open shelter bed for her, this officer drove her there himself. Unfortunately, not every officer is so kind and sensitive or understands the nature of sexual violence. We were saddened but not surprised by the revelations in the Inquirer series on the downgrading of rape complaints and the systemic biases against whole classes of complainants. As my staff will testify, just as we did twenty years ago, we still repeatedly see certain classes of women who are disbelieved and unserved by the police when they attempt to report a sexual assault. Young women, children, women who been drinking, who have been using drugs, prostitutes, women who live in neighborhoods considered unsafe, women who are out late at night and are very often the way the women are dressed also. The other problem that we have is really -- and this is something that everyone has talked about today -- is the ordeal that women and 181 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 children go through in being brought to the Special Victims Unit at the Frankford Arsenal. There they sit in a tiny, windowless waiting area. They must listen to the howling and swearing of recently-arrested perpetrators kept in holding cells across the hall from the interview rooms. Sexual-assault survivors are, indeed, special victims. They need a police response that does not retraumatize them. The Special Victims Unit should be moved to a central and accessible location, a facility that's cheerful, well-served by public transportation, and stocked with toys for kids, where rape victims will be unnecessary interactions with perpetrators. We do not know how much it currently costs to operate the Special Victims Unit in its current location because the unit does not appear as a line item in the City budget. It may well be that operating the Special Victims Unit from a more appropriate facility would require additional appropriation.

We urge Council to investigate and consider this possibility in light of its extreme importance to sexual-assault survivors. 182 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 On behalf of WOAR'S staff, volunteers, board and the people we serve, thank you for holding these hearings, and thank you for caring about the suffering of rape survivors. We urge you not to let your involvement in this issue die when the gavel falls, however, but to implement the improvement recommended by the witnesses you have heard today. Perhaps, more importantly, we encourage you to monitor closely the Police Department's ongoing of miscoded rape cases, a review that must be thorough and that must go back at least five years, and to watch carefully to ensure that the practice of unfounding or miscoding rape complaints does not occur again. With our continue vigilance, we can have a law enforcement response to sexual assault that is consistently professional, compassionate, and effective. The women and children of Philadelphia deserve no 21 less. And I do get a little emotional when I talk about sexual assault survivors because they go through so much. So you will be able to hear from two people who work so closely with them. 183 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 First is Deborah Callahan, our Director of Counseling.

Thank you, Miss Johnson. We will try to fulfill those needs, if possible. Yes, ma'am. Identify yourself for the record, please.

My name is Deborah Callahan, and I've been the Director of Counseling at Women Organized Against Rape for the past seven years. I supervise a staff of ten counselors who provide counseling to children and adults, from the ages of two on up. During this time, I've had the opportunity to interact with many dedicated professional and effective Special Victims officers. I've also provided counseling to sexual-assault survivors who were satisfied with both the treatment they received when being interviewed by the Special Victims Unit, as well as the outcome of their cases. This good work has often been conducted without all of the necessary resources and support needed by the unit, and should be recognized and acknowledged. 184 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 However, I've also been keenly aware of some problem areas that have been consistently recounted to me from both the survivors themselves, the families, and from the counselors that I supervise. One of the things that I have noticed during my time at WOAR is a pattern of poor, insensitive treatment of victims by some police officers. This has often been displayed through blaming, accusatory, negative statements made to the victim about her or his behavior, actions, or story. I've often heard of remarks being made to victims such as, "She better not be lying or she will be in big trouble," or, "Why was she drinking in the first place?" Sadly enough for me, some of the most judgmental remarks that I have heard about have been made by female police officers, which, to me, maybe just speaks to the culture that we were talking about that develops within the Police Department and perhaps the internal sexism that can happen. Adolescent girls -- it's been my experience that complaints of certain groups are taken less seriously than others. Adolescent 185 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 girls particularly are questioned in an accusatory and intimidating manner. In addition, adolescents and young women who have been sexually assaulted by an acquaintance, as well as prostitutes and drug addicts, have time and time again stated that they didn't feel that their stories were taken seriously, no one even got back to them, and nothing happened to the perpetrator. Individuals who delay in their reporting even by a few days or change or remember some other aspect of the story later become suspect and often state their case is not investigated or followed through with. Another problem area is that many of the victims state they never hear back from the Special Victims Officer about the status of their case. Many also claim that if they call the officer, they don't get a clear answer about what, if anything, is being done to follow up. Less often, yet still a concern, are reports of officers losing rape kits or urine samples, which may be the only evidence of a victim being drugged, and a lack of accountability for investigation when an officer on a case retires or is transferred. 186 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 I'd like to give you a few examples of what I mentioned above. One of the adolescents worked with in a counseling support group chose to write the following letter to the police officer that interviewed her instead of about her feelings towards the perpetrator, which was the assignment in group that day. This 13-year-old was pulled into an abandoned building and raped by a stranger on her way home from school. She was a quiet girl who attended school regularly.

Excuse me. I'd like to know when this letter was done.

It was approximately three years ago.

Okay.

"My name is (blank) and I met you in (blank). And I don't like the way you was talking to me. You didn't have to talk to me like that. You saying I'm lying, and I don't like that. How would you have felt if you were just raped by some man? Would you like it if someone or me was asking questions about what happened, when happened, what time it happened, and what he/they did to you? You wouldn't like 187 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 it, would you? I thought not. I think you can be a little or maybe a lot more nicer or calmer." And she signs it "Truly Yours." Another example, a judgment towards a teen includes a 15-year-old.

When? Again, when? The time period?

Okay, this one -- I'm not exactly sure when this case was. It was from someone I supervised sometime in the last six months.

Six months.

Yeah. A 15-year-old, after an alleged rape at a party of a male acquaintance, was treated at the ER, and a police report was taken. She stated that the police officer make blamed her for the assault, making inappropriate comments regarding her short skirt at the time he took her report. The victim was both suicidal and homicidal upon her arrival for counseling at WOAR. The perpetrator in this case was not arrested and was not brought to trial.

Do we know the officer and so on? 188 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775

I don't have that information. I could find it, but I didn't bring it with me today. I was going to just tell you about one other case. A woman in her 50s was sexually assaulted -- and this case was about a year ago. I saw her about nine months to a year ago. A woman in her 50s was sexually assaulted by a man who she had just begun dating. This woman was extremely ashamed of what happened and felt very stupid and naive. She began questioning her judgment and ability to trust people. When she reported the assault to the Special Victims Unit, the officer who took the report told her that at her age, she should have known better than to go to a man's apartment alone. The officer also inappropriately told her about another case that was being investigated where the officer didn't believe the victim because he said it was hard to believe that anyone would want to rape a woman that overweight. As a clinician providing counseling to survivors who have experienced a sexual trauma anywhere from one day to twenty years later, I see 189 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 clearly the short- and long-term psychological impact of both the sexual assault and the immediate response that the survivor receives afterwards. When a supervisor shares the painful details of the sexual assault memory with me, most often, she includes the interview with the police officer, the hospital exam, and the immediate reaction or response or lack thereof of family members and friends. This is all a part of the trauma memory. That's how powerful the immediate experience afterwards is. When a survivor goes through the degrading experience of sexual assault, is able to get up the courage to report the story to the police, and is then met with a negative or a skeptical response, or just silence, this confirms for most survivors what they're already feeling -- that they're powerless, they're unworthy, and not believed. I've often spent months with a survivor trying to help them change a belief like "it's my fault," "I'm a bad person," or "maybe I could have prevented it." These kinds of beliefs contribute to many sexual-assault survivors having low self-esteem, becoming 190 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 involved in high-risk, self-destructive behavior, and many others. I just want to take this opportunity to underscore how difficult and important the work of the Special Victims Unit in the Philadelphia Police Department is. As an advocate for sexual assault victims -- I heard some of these things talked about earlier, but I just wanted to underscore that I would recommend that: The work of the Special Victims officers needs to be recognized as a specialization that requires intensive training and skill as well as the necessary funding, resources and respect to do the job adequately. Only officers interested in working in that unit should be placed there. There also needs to be enough officers in the unit to meet the needs of the volume in the City of Philadelphia so that each case gets the attention it deserves. There also needs to be more accountability in the area of follow-up, regular meetings with victim advocate groups, and an identified liaison who's able to provide case- 191 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 related information to survivors and advocates. There should be specialized ongoing training and support for Special Victims officers to improve responsiveness to sexual-assault survivors and prevent secondary post-traumatic stress disorder or burnout and apathy towards their work. Again, as everyone has stated, there needs to be a more centrally-located, more victim-friendly Special Victims Unit. I appreciate the opportunity to testify, and I hope that this process will help to create a better system in the City of Philadelphia. Thanks.

Please identify yourself for the record.

My name is Stacey Walsh and I'm --

Bring the microphone closer to you.

Okay. My name is Stacey Walsh, and I'm a Crisis Intervention Coordinator at WOAR. In my role at WOAR, I provide crisis 192 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 counseling to survivors of rape in the emergency room and on our 24-hour hotline. We see about 48 to 50 survivors each month in the emergency room. Rape is a very traumatic experience. During the aftermath of rape, it is imperative that a survivor is treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve. A special sensitivity is necessary for these survivors. Many of the detectives in the Special Victims Unit recognize this, but unfortunately, some do not. In Philadelphia, most survivors are taken to one of two area departments: at Jefferson Hospital or Episcopal Hospital. The survivor will receive free medical care and will have an extensive forensic exam. During this time, the survivor reports the details of the rape to a triage nurse, a doctor, the rape the advocate, and a uniformed police officer. Rarely are these reports taken at the same time. Each account forces a survivor to relive a very horrifying experience. After this long process, the survivor is then told to go to the Special Victims Unit, to speak with a detective. Often, survivors feel 193 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 very anxious about spending more time talking about the experience, as well as anxious about dealing with the police. One survivor, who was reluctant to go to the Special Victims Unit that night, was told by a Special Victims Unit detective to "Get going, Missy," or she would not be able to press charges if she didn't go that night.

Was that recent?

Yes. I've only been with the agency for eight months. That was about -- that was in October.

October. So that this is within the period of time that we began talking about this.

Yes, yes.

Okay. And the stories in the Inquirer had already come out.

Yes. This was about 11 p.m., and she was raped at 9 a.m. that day. She had only requested to return home to sleep for a few hours. Survivors have not only been injured physically, but emotionally by the traumatic 194 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 events. Often survivors must leave the clothing they were wearing for evidence collection and they must leave the hospital in scrubs, as well as being unable to shower. They are then driven in the back seat of a police vehicle --

That's indignant. Isn't it sort of insulting to leave the in scrubs?

Hospital scrubs, yeah.

Hospital scrubs? You mean, they don't try to --

We try to provide clothing.

Not you, I don't think that would be your responsibility.

Yeah.

But at least the police or somebody in an official capacity.

Yeah.

Or the hospital.

Or the hospital, absolutely. I agree.

So that's another indignity. 195 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775

Yeah. They are then driven in the back seat of a police vehicle. This drive can take about to 30 minutes. Upon entering 5 the Arsenal Business Complex, which houses the 6 Special Victims Unit, they are met with the scene 7 of a brick wall topped with rolls of barbed wire, 8 a very frightening sight, made even more 9 frightening if you are being driven there in the 10 night. 11 Once inside, they are taken to the 12 offices of the Special Victims Unit. Many times 13 the elevator is broken; therefore, they must climb 14 three flights of stairs before they reach their 15 destination. And this can be particularly painful 16 if they've had any physical injuries caused by 17 their perpetrator. 18 They are told to wait in a stark, small 19 waiting area, where they sit knee-to-knee with 20 other survivors and their families. There are no 21 magazines to distract them during their long wait. They may also seen their own perpetrator as the perpetrators are being brought into small holding cells in the office.

They're all 196 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 together?

Mm-hmm. There's a waiting area for victims on the one side and there's a hallway, and perpetrators are brought down through it, and then there's a holding cell room in the back.

And you can see from the holding cell into that small room?

No, 'cause they're kind of turned. But, yeah, as they're passing to get into the holding cells. When they are taken to the interview room, there are no pictures on the walls and only a table and a few chairs. Children are only one office away from perpetrators. Adult survivors may be interviewed in the same room where the perpetrators are held, only a few feet away. They are not allowed to have any families present during the interview. Therefore, they have no 21 support. I was delighted to hear Captain Mooney state that the Special Victims Unit would allow family and support present. I think they need to continue to offer that to victims. 197 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775

Are they doing it now? Or have you seen that change being implemented?

No, I have not seen that change implemented. In the hospital, when a uniformed police officer takes the report, everybody is told to step out of the room while the report is being taken.