An assemblyman says the NYPD is not being as forthcoming with rape statistics as it should be.
Dan Quart (D-Manhattan) recently filed an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit by media company E.W. Scripps, which unsuccessfully tried to get information from the Police Department about unfounded sex assault allegations from 2014 through 2016.
Scripps, which owns 33 TV stations nationwide, said in its suit that more than 40 other law enforcement agencies, including police departments in Nassau County, Buffalo, Los Angeles and Chicago, provided the very data the NYPD — the nation’s biggest department — did not.
The suit followed an unsuccessful Freedom of Information Law request dating to September 2017.
“We’re in the dark here on a basic transparency level,” Quart told the Daily News. “There’s no good reason the NYPD should not be producing this data.
“It has it.”
The NYPD said in its FOIL response that the electronic data sought was not readily available in the requested format and that Scripps could find what it needed on an NYPD website, CompStat 2.0. But Scripps said the full data were not on that site.
Quart, an attorney, in his brief focused on the controversy swirling around the Special Victims Division, which investigates sex crimes. The unit has been accused by advocacy groups and the city Department of Investigation of not having nearly enough seasoned detectives.
“Is there a serious problem with unfounded rape allegations?” Quart asked. “Does that correspond to the staff shortages cited by DOI?
“Absent raw data, there’s no way to tell.”
NYPD spokeswoman Devora Kaye said police remain dedicated to investigating every rape complaint and bringing justice to every victim. But she would not say why the department would not provide the data about unfounded cases.
Instead, she noted that the NYPD did provide information that totaled 7,000 pages.