CIVIC CENTER — The NYPD will partner with an outside organization for a new program to improve the department's interactions with crime victims, according to police and a notice published in the City Record.
While it will be similar to programs that exist in the city's district attorneys' offices, the NYPD's Crime Victims Advocates Program will be precinct-based, with two "advocates" at almost every precinct and police service area around the city.
One advocate in each precinct or PSA will work with domestic violence victims, the other with general crime victims.
"This is going to be a collaboration between the police department and a social service agency," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Collaborative Policing Susan Herman, adding that this kind of partnership is unusual for the NYPD and local law enforcement in general. "They will continue to have an outside perspective on the work of the police department. We're embracing that."
Herman said the program's goal is to "help victims of crime understand what the criminal justice system is and what their options are, and help them navigate the process," acknowledging that the system places a heavy burden on victims.
"They have to give information to us and talk to us in what may be the most traumatic moments of their life," she said. "We ask them to go to the prosecutor's office, we ask them to go to court. And it's really our obligation to assist them through that process."
The program is part of the "collaborative policing" efforts that Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton have touted, and is funded as one of First Lady Chirlane McCray's mental health initiatives.
"People who experience crime often experience trauma that can be very debilitating unless they get assistance," Herman said, emphasizing the importance of aid that provides concrete services and is specific, "helpful and useful."
The advocates will help victims fill out applications for victim compensation, explain to them what kind of specialized victim services are available throughout the city, and show them how and where to get individual and group counseling or where to get a rape kit done in a hospital.
Herman said they "will stay with that victim and work with that victim as long as the victim wants."
The idea, Herman said, is that providing victims with faster access to support and services will make them "more likely to recover from the trauma quickly and successfully" as well as "more likely to choose to participate in legal process for the instant crime and more likely to report again if it happens again."
Herman said the advocates will communicate with victims in person at the precinct, as well as by phone and sometimes at the victim's home, depending on the victim's specific needs.
They'll also be tasked with building partnerships with local neighborhood organizations and doing community outreach to build local residents' trust and confidence in the criminal justice system and alleviate fears and anxieties about reporting crimes.
Their duties will also include "training members of the command to which they are assigned on a variety of topics," according to a procurement summary by the NYPD.
The NYPD has had domestic violence advocates in precincts and some PSAs since the mid-1980s, but Herman described this new initiative as "a tremendous expansion of that work."
A "concept paper" detailing the program's goals and approach is in the works, to be followed by a request for proposals from service providers.
The RFP will be issued by the city's Health and Human Services system, and open to applicants who the city has approved as a provider equipped for case management, preventive services, mental health services, outreach or rehabilitation and therapy.
Herman said the department has not yet decided which precincts will be targeted first, but that after a "short planning period," she hopes to have advocates in the first set of precincts by next spring.
Funding for the program is split between the NYPD and the city's Human Resources Administration, according to a City Hall spokeswoman. There is $5.1 million allocated for it in this year's budget, an expected $9.8 million for next year, and then $14.7 million annually to keep it going, starting in 2018.
"This relatively small, targeted investment in a common sense program will go a long way toward providing crime victims with even more effective responses at the time of the incident and in the critical days, weeks, and months after," said spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick, "complementing the NYPD's comprehensive crime fighting tools, which led to the safest summer in 20 years."
