DALLAS — The Dallas Police Department plans to speed up its sexual assault reporting process by allowing people to relay incidents over the phone instead of to an officer in person.
Officials from the department told the Dallas City Council’s public safety committee Monday about their plan to begin offering the option at Parkland as part of a pilot program in April. Police officials hope to expand the program to other Dallas hospitals where sexual assault nurse exams (SANE) are performed.
“Our current procedure includes that when a victim arrives at a hospital that they have to call 911 and an actual police officer has to respond to the hospital and take a report, which unfortunately, may cause some delay for the victim,” said Catrina Shead, DPD assistant chief overseeing the investigations bureau.
Through the new program, if a patient chooses to report a sexual assault, nurses will help the patient connect with trained expediters from DPD over the phone.
“This helps us speed up the process and investigate these incidents a lot faster,” Shead said of the pilot program.
In Texas, 6.3 million adults experienced some form of sexual assault during their lifetime, according to a 2015 University of Texas study.
“This program will help some of our most vulnerable patients at Parkland and is the result of many community partners working together to help serve survivors of sexual assault as we continue to help promote their healing as they seek justice,” Brittany Pahl, Parkland’s director of forensic nursing and community programs, told WFAA.
In recent years, Dallas police have turned to taking reports of some crimes online or over the phone in hopes of speeding up response times amid an officer shortage.
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