Bruising week for SVD unit
Chief must go: critics
Advocates were already fed up with the head of the NYPD’s troubled Special Victims Division just over a year into his tenure — but after the gut-wrenching testimony from rape victims this week, they now say he’s got to go.
Inspector Michael King took the reins of SVD in August 2020 from Deputy Chief Judith Harrison and was touted by police brass for his qualifications to oversee the unit as a forensic nurse.
Advocates and police sources told The Post it has become apparent that King, who never worked as a detective, lacked the managerial and investigatory skills to reform the long-embattled unit.
“Mike King has heart but I don’t know that he has the skills to run this unit,” an insider source told The Post. “This position needs to be held by an expert investi- gator and a management person to manage their staff and their cases because there will always be investigative issues.”
The NYPD declined a request by The Post to speak with King and referred to his City Council testimony Monday.
Sources say King (inset) has harped on meaningless paperwork instead of keeping in touch with victims, no longer interviews investigators before they are reassigned to SVD and has lost control of who is placed in the unit, which has been flooded with officers, not detectives, moved out of their commands as favors.
“I think [King’s] just taking care of people coming in,” a police source said. “They’re cops with a couple of years on the job who never did any investigative work and then they come there and you’re trying to train people, but there’s really not a lot of senior detectives and supervisors there anymore.”
SVD — which is charged with solving child-abuse cases and sexual assaults, some of the most complex cases in police work — is staffed by 255 investigators.
That accounts for less than 1 percent of the uniformed police force and, as of Monday, some 100 of those cops have not been trained to interview survivors alone, forcing a buddy-system approach to investigations, according to advocates and sources.
Advocates did concede reform is a high bar in the division without support from the top and hope a new administration brings change.
Mary Haviland, former executive director at New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, added there has been a “real investigative brain drain since [Michael] Osgood” was forced out.
Haviland said she wants to see a nationwide search for a new head of the SVD.
“I want to hear the mayoral candidates explain what they will demand of their police commissioner when it comes to repairing NYPD response to sexual assault,” she said.
Police spokesman Sgt. Edward Riley said the NYPD “is committed to ensuring that all sexual assault survivors feel the safety and support needed to come forward.”
“Special Victims Unit investigators bring a victim-centric and evidence-driven approach and work tirelessly to build the strongest possible case,” Riley said.