Rapes Go Unreported in Atlanta Police Department

Over a year and a half after an internal audit of the Atlanta Police Department found 34 unreported rape cases, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington has launched an investigation. The audit was ordered in February 2001 by now-retired Atlanta Deputy Chief C.B. Jackson after an anonymous letter was sent to then-Atlanta Police Chief Beverly Harvard claiming Jackson and others were “underreporting sex crimes —particularly rape and aggravated sodomy,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. At the time of the audit, Jackson claimed that the 34 rape cases had been investigated, but that if a detective suspected a victim was lying, the case would be put in a special file that wouldn’t even be assigned a case number. Jackson is now retired, and the lieutenant who headed the sex unit when the audit took place has been transferred to another until just over a month ago. The investigation into the unreported rapes is ongoing and as of yet there has been no disciplinary action taken against the accused officers.

Media Resources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 12/02/02

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