![]() He said that some of the cases his agency classified as exceptionally cleared would not even have been reported as rapes by other agencies in the Tampa Bay area. He downplayed it, however, by saying that those cases weren’t moving forward anyway, regardless of their categorization. ![]() That record-keeping raised its overall standing, placing it in the top half among the 25 largest departments in Florida.Īfter being asked by the Times, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri conceded his agency improperly categorized some rape cases. ![]() A Times analysis found that from 2014 through 2018, a third of Florida’s largest law enforcement agencies closed more rape cases by exceptional clearance than by arrest, including the sheriff’s offices in Hillsborough and Pinellas.īut the Times examination shows Pinellas to be a stark example of how departments can fail to solve rape cases yet get credit anyway.įrom 2014 to 2018, Pinellas made arrests in only 15 percent of its rape cases, less than all but two other large departments in Florida.Īnd yet, because of how the agency applied the exceptional classification, Pinellas reported clearing more than half of its rape cases. Pinellas is not alone in routinely using the “exceptional” category for rapes. But at times, investigators used techniques that could have discouraged victims, according to experts who reviewed the files for the Times. ![]() The sheriff’s office justified closing most of the cases after concluding the victims didn’t want to move forward. It found dozens of cases that had not been investigated enough to be put in that category. The Times examined files detailing more than 80 rape cases that were exceptionally cleared by the agency from 2014 through 2018. ![]()
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