The New York Times profiles the city police department’s Special Victims Squad, where about 30 new cases came in last weekend, typical for the citywide unit of 190 specially trained investigators and supervisors. Among 6,000 sex cases the squad handles each year, none carried the notoriety of the one that accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned yesterday as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, from attacking a hotel housekeeper.
The squad’s detectives do not solve their cases in the span of an hourlong television show; their work is done more deliberately, often in the quiet spaces of police squad rooms or private hospital bays. “The people who work in this field are dedicated to it, but I don't think any one of them would call it glamorous,” said Paul Browne, chief police spokesman. “It is often very gritty and difficult work that they engage in, with impressive results.”