You heard the police chief and the captain. Have any of those reforms that they talked about, how many of those things have been implemented? What is the nature of those reforms as you see them?
I haven't really seen very many. I think they're in the very beginning stages, so I haven't really seen very many happening at the hospital and in the Special Victims Unit. So, unfortunately, I can't answer that.
If it is in the evening or weekend, the victim assistance officer is not available. And fortunately, there's only one victim assistance officer in this unit to provide 198 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 support for the more than 4,000 survivors seen by the Special Victims Unit per year. If they are lucky, they will be assigned one of the caring, sensitive detectives at the Special Victims Unit.
Give me the definition -- what is a victim assistance officer? And you say there's only 1 for 4,000?
I don't know her exact job description. What I know is that I work directly with her on cases that may -- we may be experiencing complaints about, or survivors may call us and want to know what the status of their case is and is not feeling like they're getting the results that they need from their officer. So what I would do is call her and then she follows up and gets the information. She also does some work with survivors on getting them connected with clothing and shelter that they might need.
'Cause I asked the captain who does the interviewing and to explain it to me. And he said whatever officer is 199 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 assigned. And the problem being, we don't know whether these officers have gotten what type of training in order to be able to interview a rape victim. I mean, you, as a person working for Women Against Rape, you go through a certain type of training.
And my concern is the type of training that the officers are receiving, who is giving it, and what type of direction this training takes.
But doesn't the victim assistance officer come out of the DA's Office? It's not a police officer out of the Philadelphia police, is it?
If I could answer. It's a police officer from the Philadelphia Police Department. And her role is, she's a liaison between us and the Police Department and other systems. She's also an advocate for the victim. So very often, when we need information, she will provide that information. And if we have a complaint, we will either contact her or the lieutenant with the complaint. 200 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 As far as the training is concerned, historically, Women Organized Against Rape had been involved in training police officers to give the other side that we see and to enhance the sensitivity. That changed in the latter part of last year and is now being soley down by the Police Department. I was looking at the curriculum and I see there are five hours devoted to sexual assault. And I can tell you, you may do it from the police perspective or from a textbook, but those people who have worked in the area, such as we, you cannot replace the kind of sensitivity that we can be -- and the experience. We're the people who see the survivors for the longest time on an ongoing basis.
Please continue. Sorry to keep interrupting you, but every time you say something, a new question arises. But I promise to let you finish, and then we'll begin asking questions of all three of you.
Okay. The Department of Justice reports that 72 percent of women who are raped are raped by someone they know. The number 201 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 of women who are raped by a date, an acquaintance, or a partner is astounding. Many survivors in this category reported that they were told by a Special Victims Unit detective that they were lying, shouldn't have gone in that place, trusted that person, or worn those clothes. This judgmental attitude only deepens the survivor's sense of shame and guilt. Some detectives in this unit have told survivors that they better not be lying or they will suffer consequences, implying that a rape never occurred. Some survivors have indicated that they were told that they were unable to leave the unit until they admitted that it was consensual sex. In the cases where the survivor may have been under the influence of drugs and alcohol, these attitudes become even more apparent, with statements such as, "You shouldn't have been drinking, "How stupid are you," and being questioned about their own drug use by detectives. If you are a prostitute, the attitude is that you just didn't get paid for consensual and your angry. This is particularly painful if 202 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 you were gang-raped by several men. Survivors who are able to identify their attacker with a 98 percent certainty have been told that detectives will not question this person without a 100 percent certainty. After the many hours of waiting, repeatedly going over the rape in the most intimate of details, they are able to go home, ending what can be an eight-hour experience from the hospital exam to the end of the detective's questioning. Some survivors have reported intense anger not only at the perpetrator of the crime, but also at the detective who treated them poorly. In these cases, the system, which was designed to help the victim, ends up retraumatizing the victim again. It is imperative that the intensive training about the effects of rape and trauma be given to all employees of the Special Victims Unit on an ongoing basis. It is imperative that anyone coming into contact with a rape survivor have specialized training to deal with the very real issues that survivors face. Survivors of rape would benefit from 203 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 more victims advocates within the Special Victims Unit assigned to each shift providing that much needed support, information, and advocacy within the department. The victims advocate needs highly specialized training in order to work with the survivor and to have the advocacy skills needed to assist the survivor. They should attend trainings monthly as well as have monthly contact with the hospitals and area rape crisis center to ensure the survivors are getting the proper follow-up. The Special Victims Unit needs more intensively-trained staff to attend to these survivors, better equipment, a better environment, and be centrally located, where survivors can be served in the best possible manner. These few changes would enhance the services which the survivors receive in the Special Victims Unit and would alleviate the continued trauma and stress which they experience.
Miss Walsh, you began working for Women Against Rape since when?
Of '99. And I imagine that your testimony is mostly of personal 204 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 experiences that you have had?
Since April of 1999, what you relate here has been occurring?
And individuals who have gone through this process have felt the degrading manner and insensitive way that they've been treated. You mentioned that 100 -- 150 per month, is it?
And how many counselors do you have at Women Against Rape?
Of these 40 to 50 per month, how many of those cases, to your knowledge, have really been investigated and then forwarded to the DA's Office for prosecution. Do you have knowledge of that?
Unfortunately, I don't have 205 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 those numbers with me, but I could definitely get them to you.
I really would be very much interested in seeing what those numbers are. And which one of you, you know, will tell me in essence which ones haven't been and so on. But I would also like to see what is the reason they have given for not following up and investigating the ones that were not investigated and followed up to prosecution.
And during that period of time. If you can give me a year, if you can -- I don't know if you have the staff to do it or not, but it's in order to really get a sense of what we're talking about. Because we can talk reform, and the Commissioner can come, and he has -- I believe in this commissioner more than I believed in other commissioners that have come forward across this room, but that culture is very difficult to uproot. And I've been dealing with this problem now, not only in this case, but in 206 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 terms of statistics and crime for over the last seven, eight years. So if you can give me a sense of what it is in numbers, I would really, really appreciate that. Councilman Rizzo?
Thank you. I'm just going to address this question to the panel, and the three of you can decide who will answer. I want to go back to the officers that are assigned to the Special Victims unit. They are all sworn police officers, no civilians, correct?
When you identify, and today we've heard about the insensitivity of the police officers, some of these stupid statements that have been made, what do you do about it? Do you go to the superior officer? Do you have a process to complain about this 207 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 insensitivity? Because if things like this are being said, obviously, their supervision, their management, the Commissioner needs to know about it because these officers don't belong there. What do you do when you identify this type of insensitivity?
What we have done in the past is, we would always go to the captain; or if the captain's not available, to the lieutenant, with the names, the incident, and there would be some follow-up. And what probably has not happened that could be certainly more tightly than it's been is our follow up in ensuring that some action has been taken. What we have done in the past is, we've reported the situation, and we would get a report back from the captain or the lieutenant and pretty much would take that as it did happen, whatever corrective action had been applied. And we're still doing this.
Do you have -- have you kept track of officers that you consider problematic, that have repeatedly created this 208 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 kind of an environment? Because, obviously, if this is continuing, just the good cop/bad cop thing, it can't continue. You know, in business, people say, Yeah, I reprimanded, I suspended the person for -- you don't really know if the officer was dealt with other than the faith you have in the captain or the lieutenant saying to you, yes, we dealt with the issue. But if it's repetitive, then obviously, there's more to this one than. . .
We have copies of the memos that we send. Also, it would be so helpful if we don't -- probably what does not happen is we don't get enough complaints from victims. Some may feel they just want to get it over with and they don't want to deal with it anymore and --
Do you know of any officer that has been removed from the Special Victims Unit because of their behavior, because of insensitive behavior?
In any of your 209 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 complaints that you have made about officers being insensitive and rude and degrading, have you ever given to you -- have they ever said to you that the captain or the lieutenant, that such and such disciplinary has been taken or that he has been assigned or she has been assigned to a sensitivity training, and we have established a program, or that the person has been removed and transferred to another unit?
What did happen is, two years ago, we presented a list, and we were invited to come out and speak to the unit. It was two or three years ago, to do sensitivity training for all of the officers.
That was it, but you don't know of anything. You know, in all of the memos of complaint that you have put forward, you don't know what disciplinary action, if any, has been taken about those officers?
Or whether they were 210 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 put into training programs to see whether their behavior could be changed?
Do you know of any officers that don't want to be in the special services unit, that really just don't want to be there?
Okay. So the assumption can be that most people that are in there want to be in there?
No, I wouldn't make that assumption. I think historically, there have been officers who have been transferred to Special Victims, and who have not wanted to be there. I think I feel confident today that with the new commissioner, that there is an effort to bring in officers who want to do that kind of work. The bottom line is, if a person does not want to do this work, they're not going to do it well. It's not pleasant, it's tough.
And you have to have the sensitivity and caring. So if you didn't have it 211 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 to start with, more than likely, it's going to take you a miracle for you to get it later on.
One simple thing that we could do is not allow them to leave the hospital in scrubs, at least begin with that. You know, that sort of thing -- that can go a long way.
My understanding is while they leave in scrubs at times -- and that's not all of the time -- is because if there is a suspect, there's the intent to get to that suspect as soon as possible, and it may not always be enough time.
Well, there should be some way in which some clothing, some sort of thing, you know, just a slip of a dress or whatever, or anything.
Well, I have talked with both hospitals that they should not do that.
There is some clothing available. The problem we run into a lot is that sometimes it just didn't fit. We don't have a huge abundance available.
Scrubs even when 212 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 you're a patient in the hospital, scrubs are sort of degrading.
Okay. So could we have that information and could you make that available to us, please so that we can -- when we make -- I want to make a final recommendation to this Council in terms of what initiatives we should be proposing as a body. And that information can be very important to us in terms of the numbers and so on.
I just have one quick one. When a victim is taken to the hospital for treatment, I would hope there's no bureaucracy at the hospital. I broke my foot recently, and it took me longer for the paperwork than it did to get my foot cared for. There's no bureaucracy, I would hope, in a person getting care at a hospital.
It's a high priority. So I guess your broken foot wasn't as high of a 213 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 priority.
My point is that I just wanted to be assured that there was no 5 slowdown in a person being in the intake process.
'Cause I think you know what we're talking about. I think you know it very well, if anybody knows it in this city. And I really would like to see how many cases, you know, if you have. I don't know whether you do or you don't, in terms of the DA's Office, how many cases prosecute per year, how many cases are brought to you. And what is a rape case, really? What have you brought in to this process?
I just want to say, before I leave, I have another meeting that 214 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 started at 2. You know, I will do whatever our committee decides to do to come up with the recommendations and implementation of the suggestions toward the goal of really improving the services in this department. I come from -- I used to work for Planned Parenthood, and I remember when WOAR moved into our building. I forget how long ago it was, I won't say either. So I come from that whole spectrum of women's health and women's health issues and did some education and training of various women groups, so you have my complete and full support. Sorry I have to leave.
Yes. It's "Rose," Councilman. Good afternoon. I brought with me Charlie Erlich, who's the Assistant Chief of our unit in the District Attorney's Office. I'm the chief of that unit. Just very briefly, between Charlie and I, we have 31 years of experience prosecuting child abuse and sex crimes.
You don't look that old. 215 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775
It's all on him -- no. I've been involved in this area for years, and 4 Charlie, for 15. We have a unit in the DA's 5 called the Family Violence and Sexual Assault 6 Unit. We created that unit in 1990. And it's 7 very unique in the City in that we prosecute all 8 cases of child abuse -- that would sexual abuse, 9 physical abuse and neglect, all cases of domestic 10 violence, all cases of adult sexual assault, and 11 all cases of elder abuse. So we're probably the 12 only City-run agency that really puts all of those 13 areas into -- housed in one unit. And for 14 purposes of prosecution, it really works. 15 Rather than go on and tell you what you 16 probably already know, how can I assist you here in this hearing?
Well, how many cases do you get a year? In classifications, you know, because, obviously, you know, what we've been told is all of these different classifications that we have. And how do these cases get to you? And when they get to you, how are they classified? And that sort of thing. I'd like to find out.
The police function is one 216 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 of investigating and at the point where their investigation has reached a point where they believe that there's been probable cause to arrest, they refer the case to the District Attorney's Office for charging. We review the facts. As stated by the Police Department, we look to the Crimes Code and we determine what charges lie. We have nothing at all to do with coding. That is an internal statistical issue that the Police Department deals with. I must tell you, quite frankly, that before the Inquirer article, I didn't know what most of these codes were. They're not something that's share with prosecution or, frankly, are they relevant to prosecution. We are charged with charging, and after an arrest is made, we prosecute those cases.
Well, you heard the Commissioner say that he gets confused by the coding of the Police Department itself. So I don't know -- I don't see why we need it in there, and I asked him to give us something. When they get to you --
And they have said to us, there's still the 1930 definition of rape but we see that rape, you know, encompasses a whole series of issues and actions.
And I'm intrigued as to how the case comes to you, you know, how that case comes to you after the police report. You know, what does -- in essence, what does the police report say, and what determinations do you then make as to what is going to be the charge on this issue? On this specific case, whatever it is, X-case?
Well, cases come to us in two circumstances. Number one, the police officer, and very frequently they do, they'll call Charlie or myself and ask us to review their investigation to determine, in fact, what charges should lie? So in that capacity, we act to assist them during an investigation, and that does happen, and we enjoy a fair amount of 218 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 cooperation. If the police elect not to ask for our help at that stage, then we don't know about those cases. When they have decided that there is probable cause, we have a charging unit that works hours a day, 7 days a week, that decides 8 whether or not the facts bear out the crime of 9 rape, the crime of involuntary deviate sexual 10 intercourse, the crime of statutory sexual 11 assault. It really has to do with what facts the 12 law -- 13
Do you have numbers 17 along those lines? Do you have any numbers or do 18 you keep records? 19
Charlie and I estimate that 23 we have approximately 1,000 case a year that come 24 into our unit, which is comprised of only 15 prosecutors, that are sexual assault in nature. 219 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 That includes adult sexual assault and child-abuse cases, felonies and misdemeanors. It's approximately 1,000.
Would you be able to break those down almost by city areas, like Northeast, North Central Philadelphia and so on, along those lines?
They can be broken down that way by district control numbers. And those numbers are available, but I don't have them offhand.
Can you make that available to our committee? 'Cause I'd like to see a picture of where crimes of this nature are happening on a yearly basis, if I can.
I'm sure, with the captain's help, we could provide some statistical analyses, sure.
Do you see problems in terms of people that may not usually get the attention such as prostitutes or individuals who are homeless and so on, who might get raped, whose cases really -- but they never get to you if they're not investigated as such along those 220 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 lines, right?
So even though -- I mean, you wouldn't have any idea about whether those things are happening or not?
Well, it's very hard to respond to questions about what I don't see.
I can only tell you what I do see, in fairness. And I have a tremendous amount of respect for Women Organized Against Rape and the work of Deborah Callahan and her staff. The fact is that there are many victims of sexual assault who are prostitutes, self-defined prostitutes, who we get in the criminal justice system through the arrest process and who do go to trial where there are convictions. Now, I'm sure there may be a whole sea of cases that we don't know about, but I can only tell you what I do know.
Are there any statistics on how many cases are brought to the District Attorney's Office? Not knowing the process, does the Police Department send you a 221 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 particular case with a recommendation to prosecute?
When the police officer believes that there is probable cause to make an arrest, they will refer the case to the District Attorney's Office for prosecution. If, when we read their summary of the facts, we agree that crimes have been committed and we know that because we know the Crimes Code, then those persons are charged with those crimes.
Is it suggested that when the Police Department sends that to you for review that that is a recommendation to exactly do that, review it? Or are you -- when it gets to you, is that pretty much -- do you -- is that a feeling that they want this arrest?
Again, there are two instances, as a general rule, where we get involved with police. Number one is when the officer feels that, yes, there is probable cause, and submits that information to the District Attorney's Office for a prosecution. The other time is during an investigation where an officer might have some questions like, is this 222 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 prosecutable, is this a crime? There are lots of criminal activities that are absolutely clear-cut. There are some that involve shades of gray, and the officer will call us and ask us for our help. We get involved in that way. That might result in an arrest, it might not.
Well, in a more clear-cut case, where the Special Victims Unit sends you a report for review, I'm interpreting that that request for review is the Special Victims Unit saying, We want prosecution, we want to arrest this person.
Do you know of cases that have been brought to you that that request to make an arrest for the District Attorney to prosecute had been denied?
Where you have not agreed with the investigation? And what do you do? Do you conduct your own investigation?
Well, it's really very case-dependent. But the answer is sure, if there is something about a police officer's 223 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 recommendation that we disagree with, we're going to do further investigation. It might mean, and often does mean, bringing the complaining witness in to talk with us, it might mean asking the police officer to go out and do additional interviews and gather more corroboration. So it really depends. It can go either way, sure.
So what you're saying is that you could ask for additional information, that information not develop, and the request for arrest could be withdrawn because they realized that the case may flawed and they might not have the information to prosecute?
You say to the investigator, There's some loose ends here.
They can't come back with the information they you need. Do you, in some cases, hand it back to them and say, What you want us to do, we can't do, we can't arrest this person?
At some point, the decision needs to be made. You can't keep a case in limbo forever, but things can be reopened if the additional information comes forward.
What I'm asking is, is that frequent? Do you know how often you send something back to the Special Victims Unit when they want someone arrested and you don't agree? Do you keep track of that?
Oh, Councilman, we deal with thousands of cases. It would probably be not a frequent occurrence, but it happens.
Miss Rogers -- 225 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775
In the year '95, '96, for example, '96, '97, how many rape cases are there that would come under the different definition of rape? I'd like to get a year-to-year sort of how many cases you got referred from the Police Department. For example, do you have the numbers of the rape cases that were referred to your office from the year '98 and '99 or '97-'98? Do you have that?
Let me explain something to this body. Rape is one kind of sex crime.
Well, I said -- I gave you a description. I said among the descriptions of sex crimes, rape being among them.
This unit investigates a sundry, sundry series of sexual encounters.
And violations. 226 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775
And I'm wondering if I can get from the DA, within that spectrum that we have been discussing here, the amount of referrals from a 5-year period, '95-'96, how many rape cases, and then whatever the definition -- statutory rape cases, sexual aggravated -- you know, whatever it is classification.
For the sexually-related cases, do you have statistics of referrals from the Police Department to you. And I want to know if you can see how many of those have been prosecuted either successfully or not successfully.
Yeah. Councilman, I think that the Inquirer has gotten all of that information.
Well, if it's accessible to the Inquirer, I'm sure it's accessible to you.
I cannot call Jane Eisener and ask her for the information. I'd like 227 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 to call one of our departments in this city and ask them for the information.
Well, no. I think that Mr. McCoy and his colleagues went to the court system, which is where that information was obtained, but if we can be of any help in getting it --
I would love for you to -- you know, we're asking for cooperation so that we can do certain things. All we're asking for is statistics. We want to be able to look at what the police have been doing and what has been the final product at the other end of the line of the judicial system. We want to look at this process of justice from one investigation to the other end in terms of prosecution and successful prosecution or not, and then maybe make an evaluation as to why.
I think, Councilman, that according to the Inquirer article, that --
And I'd rather not 228 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 call Jane Eisener for the information.
Oh, Mr. McCoy. But I'd rather go to my agencies that is work within the City. I'd rather go to the Commissioner, I'd rather go to the DA and say, Look, we need this information so that we can begin to see how can we help. How much money is needed, how much money do we need to allocate for a special unit for the DA's Office so that we can begin not to have the adversarial arguments that we have because we don't have information. And all we're trying to do is find information, and I'd rather not go to Mr. McCoy.
Well, without belaboring this point, Councilman Ortiz, what I'm trying to explain to you is that district control numbers from police paperwork tell you where the crimes occurred, and from -- I'm sure Commissioner Timoney can provide you a statistical breakdown on crimes and where they occur in the city.
He said he's going to do that. 229 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775
Cases that come into the Criminal Justice Center are computerized in the court system, and the place to get that information is through the courts, and it's readily available. If I can assist you in that, I will do that.
But all I'm asking is for is what goes into the DA's Office? I should be able to find out from the DA what goes into the office.
I just told you it was a thousand cases a year that deal with sexual assault. I don't have any particular breakdown in terms of --
What I want to find out is, from '95 to '96, was it a constant thousand? Does it go up or does it down? Is it 1500 in one year and -- you don't have to give me all the details. All I want to know is, what is the number of referrals along these lines, okay? 230 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 You know, I'm not asking for case histories, okay? And how they are prosecuted and whether there is -- what amount of success there is and how many have been plea-bargained and so on so that we have a clear picture of what happens within this aspect of sexual-attack crimes that we have in the city, and how big is it, because, you know, if I read the Inquirer, it's a whole lot of cases that haven't been investigated, that have never even gotten to you, all right? A huge amount of cases don't get to the DA. And all I want to know is, how many do get to the DA? so that we can have a clear picture of how many don't get to you and the few that trickle down over to you.
And if you need more district attorneys to be able to do certain things, you can come back to me and say, Councilman, you said you guys said that you were going to do something about this. We need more money. Then the case can be made, and then we can help. 231 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775
Well, don't say to me that I got to go to Jane Eisener and Mr. McCoy. I like Mr. McCoy and I like Jane Eisener, but I'd rather get my information from the source.
A few things on the Police Department and what I think would be helpful. You're dealing with a very complicated system, and you're dealing with people who went to the police academy to become police officers. Criminal justice is an offender-accountability system. We look at holding people accountable for crimes. It's not -- inherent in the system is very little victim sensitivity. We're not the child welfare system, we're the criminal justice system, and that's really why it becomes so imperative that those systems work together. You don't want police officers to be social workers; you want social workers. You don't want police 232 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 officers to become victim advocates; you want victim advocates. And they really do need to work together. The advocate and the ones that are here are really the conscience of the community and they really fuel and drive what needs to happen because, Councilman, we're a very reactive system. Law enforcement is not known for being creative, we're not known for initiating; we're known to respond to the pressures of the community. So it's very good that you're having hearings. The location issue, it needs to be user-friendly, and I need to say to you that the users of the location are not only the women and the children; it's also the officers themselves. Because if we treat these officers like they don't do a very important job, they're going to give us exactly what we tell them they are. Again, they're going to react to how we look at them. And, finally, I don't know if any of you have read the New York Times article that talks about. . .
There is an article in the New York Times, November 24, entitled "Early Sex Abuse Hinders Many Women on welfare." That there are profound, profound sequelae from sexual abuse that fills our Youth Study Center, our kids who have been sexually abused who fill Graterford. These are women who can't get off welfare because they are plagued with depression and other problems. The economic impact of this is catastrophic. The impact on the children of sexual-assault victims is catastrophic. I think that, you know, we have an opportunity now to make things better for women and children, and I hope this Council and the new mayor see fit to do so.
I hope we can. Can you help us get that information? Because that's a process of trying to make it better.
Councilman, if it's available to me, I would be more than happy to make it available. I don't know that I --
I will write to you and Lynn a letter asking for specifically what information I'm looking for, okay? 234 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775
Please identify yourself for the record. PROFESSOR ANDERSON: Chair of the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Public Safety Ortiz, distinguished members of the committee, and gentlemen and women of the audience, my name is Professor Michelle Anderson. I teach criminal law and criminal procedure at Villanova University School of Law. And I'm here to testify today about how societal biases and institutional biases face women who are raped. Particularly, I'd like to examine how those biases have influenced the Philadelphia Police Department's practice of placing up to one-third of rape complaints into the bureaucratic black hole known as "Investigation of Persons," and the practice designating up to 18 percent of rape complaints as 235 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 unfounded. We live in a city and a culture in which the crime of rape --
Excuse me, Professor. That's a statistic that -- do you have substantiation for that number? PROFESSOR ANDERSON: My substantiation for the number comes simply from the recent statistics actually that were, from my understanding, provided by the Police Department, that, in fact, in 1998,, the unfounded rate for rape complaints was also percent. And the 14 other information that I take from the 15 Philadelphia Inquirer set of articles. 16 We live in a city and in a culture in 17 which the crime of rape is rampant. As Jane 18 Siegel mentioned, the most accurate statistics on the number of women who are emerge not from police reports, but from random sample surveys of the population. In a recent random sample survey of more than 10,000 women, conducted by the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was revealed that 20 percent of women have been forced to have sexual enter course against their will, 236 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. " Despite the fact that according to the law, these women have been raped, not many of them report their rapes to the police. According to the Department of Justice, no more than one-third of women who are raped actually report having been assaulted to the police. And according to the National Victims Center, the actual number is closer to half that, or percent. 11 And the question arises, why do so few 12 women report? Women are deterred from reporting 13 the sexual assaults they suffer because they face 14 a panoply of cultural biases that systematically 15 discredit their complaints. The same biases that 16 deter real women from coming forward to report their sexual abuse also cause the extraordinarily high unfounded rate and Investigation of Persons rate in this city. A careful examination of the situation reveals that those biases are the only support for the police practice of dead-ending so many rape complaints. One major societal bias facing raped women is the myth that women routinely lie about sexual abuse. The high rate of designating 237 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 reported rapes as "unfounded" is essentially an official endorsement of this myth. When a police officer designates a rape complaint as "unfounded," that officer has concluded that the woman is lying or that her story is not credible. Of course, there are instances of individuals falsely reporting all kinds of crimes, and an unfounded rate of 5 percent or so is not unusual. But the fact that rape has a much higher rate, one that, in Philadelphia, has exceeded three times the average for other crimes, is evidence that something other than false reporting is at work. " But as FBI scrutiny for the unfounded rate increased, those same cases were shunted to the "Investigation of Persons" category. Now we 238 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 learn that percent of all reported rapes are currently placed in the "investigation, protection, medical examination" noncriminal category. The excessive uses of each of these administrative assignments is evidence that Philadelphia police have yet to be disabused of the myth that women are prone to lie about sexual abuse. A second major societal bias facing women is the myth that sexual abuse is the victim's fault. Police often over-scrutinize the victim's behavior in order to blame her and to relieve themselves of the difficult responsibility for investigating what she experienced as a crime. A central avenue of victim-blaming is to focus on whether the victim was drinking or using drugs when the assault occurred and whether or not the victim has a history of drug abuse. Despite the fact that substance abuse and sexual assault often go hand in hand, especially on college campuses, alcohol or drug use by a rape victim actually functions to discredit the victim's testimony. To dismiss a rape complaint involving alcohol or drugs is 239 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES.
990775 legally misguided because the Pennsylvania Criminal Code declares that when a person administers drugs or intoxicants to the victim, with the purpose of substantially impairing her ability to appraise or control her conduct, and then has sexual intercourse with her, that person is absolutely of guilty of first-degree rape. Additionally and importantly, first-degree rape also includes engaging in sexual intercourse with a person who is unconscious, simply a person who is unconscious, whether or not the assailant administered intoxicants or other drugs. A third major societal bias facing raped women is the myth that sexual abuse of poor women is not as important as the sexual abuse of wealthy women, and particularly, that the sexual abuse of a prostitute is no crime at all. Women who are poor, especially those who are prostituted, are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse, and yet, they are subjected to heightened prejudice if they do come forward with complaints.
That's why those numbers from the Police Department are very important. 240 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 PROFESSOR ANDERSON: They're crucial.
Because if we get them by neighborhood and so on, then we would be able to establish the class distinction that are going into the investigations. PROFESSOR ANDERSON: Absolutely.
Because if happens that if you get raped in Center City -- PROFESSOR ANDERSON: Yes.
-- it has a different value system than if you get raped at Ninth and Cayuga, or in Hunting Park. PROFESSOR ANDERSON: And there are scholarly of different studies that suggest that that may be the case, although I don't know of any particular studies of Philadelphia, and it would be have helpful to have the numbers to try to elucidate the class and potential class bias of police officers investigating complaints. Poor women are often subject to outright hostility and class bias from police officers who do not want to bother with investigating crimes against them. For example -- and this was report in the Philadelphia Inquirer 241 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 -- George Pennington, a supervisor of the Philadelphia Sex Crimes from 1981 to 88, has argued that placing rape complaints into an administrative limbo is necessary in cases where the victims were not "people of substance," he said. Importantly, the Pennsylvania Criminal Code in no way mandates or even encourages the rejection of a rape complaint because the victim is poor or prostituted. In other words, there is no legal justification for dismissing the report of sexual assault by a poor or prostituted woman. A fourth, and the final one I'm going to discuss this afternoon, a fourth major societal bias facing raped women is the myth by an acquaintance is not a real rape. According to the Department of Justice, 4 out of 5 women who are raped know their attackers, and yet, there's a tendency to place into a greater percentage of acquaintance rapes into the administrative dead zone categories; that is, unfounded or Investigation of Person. Importantly, the Pennsylvania Criminal Code makes no distinction between rapes by an acquaintance and a rape by a stranger. In other 242 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 words, again, there's no legal justification for dismissing the report of sexual assault by a woman who knows her attacker or has had previously sexual relations with her attacker. Dumping unpopular rape victims' complaints into administrative dead zones is not episodic or anomalous police behavior. Instead, it appears to be widespread and systemic. " Police Commissioner John Timoney and Special Victims Unit Commander Captain Joseph Mooney have now said that they now use the investigation, protection, and medical examination category appropriately as a repository for cases that are simply too ambiguous to be clarified criminal. But when asked today what kind of case is appropriately placed in this category, Captain Joe Mooney testified today that sexual assaults where the victim is unconscious, drugged or drunk at the time of the attack. It's clear that these reasons for burying those complaints are not legally valid. As I mentioned, rape in the State of Pennsylvania is defined to include -- this is 243 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 first degree rape -- engaging in sexual intercourse with a person who is drugged or unconscious. To hide rape complaints in administrative dead zones, as the Philadelphia Police Department has done, represents extraordinary cowardice and manipulation. It's obviously a means by which the department seeks to garner an impressive, although entirely fabricated, clearance rate; that is, the rate at which a crime is cleared with an arrest. However, police fail to inform the victim that they deem her complaint a lie, or at least not worthy of pursuing, and thereby, they circumvent a possible avenue of institutional reform. Who knows, for instance, how many of the 2000 women in 1996 or 1997 whose sexual crimes were ignored as "investigation of person" would have called this City Council or lobbied for reform or otherwise attempted to correct the situation earlier had they actually been told that the State did not believe their complaints were true. Instead, police quietly bowed out of those investigation processes and chose not to inform the women of the 244 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES.
990775 actual status of their cases. I think that although it is important to address a number of institutional reforms regarding the way that the Police Department handles cases involving rape and child sexual abuse, it's perhaps more important to address the underlying reason why we are assembled here today. Philadelphia police have a track record of vastly under-reporting rape. How can we change this problem? I have three policy suggestion that is I humbly submit. First, police must be better trained in the defining of rape that is in the Pennsylvania Criminal Code. Studies indicates that there's often a mismatch between the legal definition of rape and what police officers believe is rape. Better training of police about the legal definitions of rape may deter them from ignoring certain complaints for reasons that are not mandated by the law.
For that, we have to destroy a lot of the mythology of a male-dominated society, in order to what constitutes the real definition of rape. 245 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 PROFESSOR ANDERSON: Yes. And although the legal definition of rape is not perfect, it's perhaps better and broader than what the police officers are at times applying. Second, we must require police to tell the victim if her complaint has been deemed "unfounded" or shunted into a noncriminal category such as "investigation, protection, medical examination." And this is important. Only an informal victim has any recourse to this administrative sleight of hand. Only an informed victim will call the City Council or the press or women's groups to try to put pressure on the Police Department to clean up its act. Allowing the police to rely on victim ignorance or institutional inertia to evade so many rape complaints must be stopped. The third proposal is that there should be community oversight of police practices regarding reports of sexual assault. In the past, women have been misled as to the status of their reported cases. If in the future, we are to keep victims informed, we must also keep an organization of community leaders and activists 246 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 also informed. If a poor or disadvantaged woman is to be shuffled into an administrative purgatory --
By at least this Council. PROFESSOR ANDERSON: Yes, at least this Council. If a poor or a disadvantaged woman is to be shuffled into an administrative purgatory, then not only should she be informed, but people capable of acting in her defense should also be informed. This would prevent who would otherwise submit to the judgment of police that their reports are unfounded from giving up entirely. The police should provide accurate public information so that those people who desire to champion the cause of abused and forgotten women can do so. Commissioner Timoney today testified that he's not concerned about the unfounded rate of rape complaints as long as there is an investigation. I disagree. The unfounded rate is a rate of institutional disbelief. Preliminary numbers from 1998 indicate that 18 percent of rape 247 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 complaints were considered unfounded, and I think that that is an outrageous number. The question arises, do the police serve the public or do they serve their own statistics? The police have sought to insulate the public from the bad news that rape is frighteningly common in this city today and that the criminal justice system has done an abysmal job of curtailing it. The police must the -- public must be informed of the widespread sexual abuse of women in Philadelphia, mobilized and ready to face problem head-on. Citizens and police should work in partnership and not in opposition. And the police force of Philadelphia must protect and champion the cause of women who have been sexually assaulted, most especially those women who are the least able to do so for themselves -- the poor and downtrodden. If police exist to protect the citizenry of Philadelphia, then rape and sexual assault must be reported and investigated accurately, zealously, and in an environment that is sensitive to the fact that many women are reluctant to report any sexual assault, no matter 248 12/6/99 PUB. HEALTH/SAFETY - RES. 990775 how egregious. Thank you.
So, we've been going now for a long time. PROFESSOR ANDERSON: Yeah.