I would really like to sit down with CPD Detectives who work sex crime cases and find out why they think it's ok to suspend a criminal sexual assault or criminal sexual abuse investigation merely because the victim is afraid, traumatized, and rightfully distrustful of police

I know that working a CSA case of ANY kind without the victim is much harder than when the victim assists Detectives, so the first thing I have in mind is what kind of legal tools and authorizations Detectives would benefit from in the event a victim can't or won't assist

The next thing I want to know is what kinds of supports and tools Detectives need to be able to help victims feel like they can actually TRUST the police in THIS kind of very personal and sensitive investigation

Speaking as a survivor, my biggest fear was being re-traumatized

Within this whole matter of trust on part of sex crime victims towards police, there is this very harmful and destructive list of behaviors on part of Detectives towards victims

If you're a Detective with certain religious beliefs or moral convictions, we need to talk

We need to talk about YOU finding a different investigative specialty. You can't have anti-sex ideology, anti-LGBTQ ideology, anti-female ideology, anti-kink ideology, anti-poly ideology, or any other number of related biases and be a sex crimes Detective

At the same time, we absolutely can't have sex crime Detectives who aren't getting pro-active, preventive care for the effects of trauma

The things sex crimes Detectives see and hear are well beyond being graphic.Reprehensible isn't even a strong enough word.

Equality and fairness to the victim, and the mandate of police to adhere to the requirements of constitutional law that guard the rights of the accused is something that requires us as a survivor community to confront the psychology and psychiatry professions

That confrontation needs to focus on laying bare the various destructive ideologies revolving around sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender presentation, kink, sex work, polyam people, etc.

The psych profession is not a friendly place for sex crime survivors

This enables sex crime Detectives, even encourages them to approach sex crime victims from a perspective of shaming them, encourages victim blaming, and encourages sex crime Detectives to "scare the hell" out of victims in an effort to punish victims.

The next thing that needs to be spoken about is men working rape and sex abuse investigations when the victim is a female or femme / trans identified person

The investigative team structure for sex crimes should be as follows:

Female Detectives are the lead for female victims

Only a female can or should speak with a female or femme identified victim. Only a female should handle ANYTHING relating to the female or femme idrntified victim

The males on the team should be given the task of dealing with interviewing male or male identified persons

Only male Detectives should handle male / male identified victims, and only male Detectives should deal with male suspects unless case analysis shows that a female interviewer is a better strategy for developing information or securing a confession from a male suspect

The valuable roles that can be played in a sex crime investigation by women or trans femme Detectives should never be discounted.

There may be times when a male or male identified victim may not feel safe or comfortable talking with a male Detective.

The air of suspicion around victims who refuse to work wirh a male Detective needs to be called what it is: male privilege rearing its ugly head

Approaching victims with suspicion is not going to develop the information you need to arrest an offender

Placing victims in situations that are inappropriate or otherwise ill advised is not going to develop the information you need for an arrest and will certainly not lead to the victim trusting you

CPD sex crimes Detectives watching this thread:

I urge you and your supervisors to brainstorm around how to better gain the trust of victims and keep cases open when they don't qualify for CCX or closure by A&P

Suspending an investigation may place the public in danger

Sex crime case investigation suspensions can also give the impression that the victim is being punished or disbelieved because of the trauma that victim is experiencing

As this stands right now, the ONLY thing that helps is that sex crimes have no statute of limitations