Ed's note: while the Tallahassee Police Department is revising its rape procedures after the botched rape investigation of Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston, our St. Johns County Sheriff, State's Attorney and Medical Examiner have revised what?
Absolutely nothing since the September 2, 2010 shooting of Michelle O'Connell. Our local law enforcement is the laughingstock of America, and some people say that Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR's mishandling of the O'Connell shooting makes Tallahassee PD look like Seal Team 6.
What do you reckon? Which Department is more incompetent? Or is it a tossup?
After Florida State Rape Case, Police Will Revise Procedures
By WALT BOGDANICH
JUNE 12, 2014
The police department in Tallahassee, Fla., the target of stinging criticism and national attention for its handling of a rape accusation against Florida State University’s Heisman Trophy winner, Jameis Winston, has begun working with a respected women’s advocacy group to rewrite its sexual assault complaint policy.
The city’s police chief, Michael DeLeo, appointed at the end of last year, has also agreed to an external review of the department’s overall policies by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit research group based in Washington.
“I applaud the chief of police’s initiative in both of these instances,” said Meg Baldwin, the executive director of the Refuge House, a provider of services to sexual assault victims. Ms. Baldwin has often been critical of the department.
Ms. Baldwin has been working behind the scenes to strengthen the community’s response to sexual assaults, an effort that gained significant momentum, she said, after an article in The New York Times examined the Winston case and other sexual assaults on Florida State students.
The Times article, published in April amid rising national concern about sexual assaults on college campuses, found that the police had conducted virtually no investigation of the rape allegation against Mr. Winston, leading in part to the prosecutor’s decision not to file criminal charges against him. Florida State knew about the allegation as well but waited nearly a year to ask Mr. Winston about it, and only then after he had led the university’s football team to the national championship.
Mr. Winston, who has never been questioned by the police, said he had consensual sex with his accuser and did not assault her. The university has declined to discuss any aspect of the Winston case, citing privacy laws.
Chief DeLeo said in an interview that his department was working on its sexual assault complaint policy with the advocacy group End Violence Against Women International. “They’re looking at our procedures, how we document things, to make them better,” he said.
The chief did not offer a timetable as to when recommendations might be carried out. “We completely review them until we’re all comfortable with it,” he said.
At a community forum organized by Ms. Baldwin on Wednesday, major players in the local criminal justice system, including Chief DeLeo; William N. Meggs, the state attorney who investigated the Winston case; and Florida State’s police chief, David Perry, heard experts on sex crime investigations emphasize the importance of prosecuting sexual assaults based on the evidence, not the likelihood of conviction.
Ms. Baldwin said that among those women in the area who had reported assaults to local law enforcement, most became discouraged with the process. Only 20 percent of sexual assaults reported to the prosecutor’s office resulted in arrests, charges and trial or plea, she said.
Ms. Baldwin said Tallahassee was not the first community to push for systemic change in sex crime investigations. She cited cities such as Baltimore, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Washington as having “already gone to the drawing board” to encourage overhauls, transparency and accountability in their handling of sexual assault complaints.
Derek Kinner contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on June 13, 2014, on page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: After Florida State Rape Case, Police Will Revise Procedures
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