Police Department - Sexual Abuse / Child Trauma Section

Responsibilities

The Sexual Abuse / Child Trauma Section consists of specially trained investigators responsible for the investigation of criminal behavior of a sexual nature and also cases serious child abuse or trauma.

  • The cases investigated include:

  • sexual assults and attempted sexual assaults
  • intra-family sexual abuse
  • attempts to entice children
  • child exploitation
  • obscene communications
  • child in need of assistance
  • proactive internet cases
  • child abuse / trauma cases

Many of the cases assigned to the Sexual Abuse / Child Trauma Section are handled as joint investigations with Child Protective Investigators, the Polk County Attorney's Office, and medical personnel

Success Rate

The overall clearance rate descrbed the ability of the investigators to identify person(s) responsible for committing the offense. The Sexual Abuse / Child Trauma Section's clearance rate for the year 2000 was 76%. A total of 831 cases were investigated of which 633 were cleared; 20% of the total cases resulted in the filing of criminal charges.

Normal business hours for the Sexual Abuse / Child Trauma Section are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Investigators can be reached by calling (515) 283-4864. Sexual Abuse / Child Trauma investigators respond to call-outs or on a 24 hour basis.


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City of Des Moines, Iowa
Police Department