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If a Cop Sexually Harasses You, What Can You Do?

An expert from the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network offers advice and resources for survivors of sexual misconduct committed by police.
Audrey Garces
 (Getty Images)

A landmark 2019 transparency law forced California law enforcement agencies to grant public access to records that detail investigations into officers' use of force, as well as incidents involving sexual misconduct while on duty.

As part of an ongoing police records project, KQED recently reported on a California Highway Patrol officer who harassed 21 women. The agency planned on firing him before he resigned in 2017 — yet pursued no criminal charges.

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Some women who reported the harassment never heard back from CHP, and a fear of retribution stopped others from reporting it all together. Studies show that cases of police sexual misconduct that have been identified are just the tip of the iceberg nationwide. Harassment or assault by an officer can pose a unique challenge when law enforcement officials are the only ones that you can report to in order for an investigation to take place.

KQED's Audrey Garces spoke with Camille Cooper, vice president of public policy at the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), to discuss resources for survivors of sexual assault committed by police. The RAINN network's 24-hour free hotline connects people with a trained staff member from a local sexual assault service provider.

This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

If someone is experiencing sexual harassment by a police officer, is there any advice you have for what they can do in the moment?

The hard thing is in a situation like that, it's going to be your word against his word. And it may be perceived that you're leveling the allegation to get out of a ticket or a charge, so there's going to be some natural cynicism on the part of the law enforcement agency.

I would give these women the same advice I would give anyone: that it's important to document. But it's a really tricky situation, especially like, what do you do if you are actually being arrested and it happens? And you've been handcuffed and it happens? Where you don't have the ability to actually physically defend yourself or get away from someone who is assaulting you?

There's all kinds of power dynamics and control dynamics that come into play. It's a tough question to answer because you're so vulnerable in that situation. (But) you could also 911 and ask them to stay on the phone with you, if you're feeling unsafe.

How can you safely document an incident of sexual misconduct by police?

(You can) audio record, if you're able to do that while it's happening. I've heard of incidents where police officers will ask women to step out of their vehicle and do searches, so that might be a situation where that might be appropriate. The hard thing is that it probably happens so quickly and unexpectedly, that it's probably hard to anticipate that it's going to happen.

One thing that you can do, too, is send yourself an email with all the details you can remember, because the email will be time and date stamped. That creates a contemporaneous record that then is admissible later in a legal proceeding, because you wrote it at the time that it occurred. Lots of people have phones, so it's very easy to send yourself an email and document everything with as many details as you can remember about what happened. So if you're not ready to report right away, that's one thing you could do.

Can you document the incident or seek immediate care without police involvement?

If you go to a rape crisis center — not necessarily because you want to report, but because you want to receive services — and you sit down with a counselor and you go through what happened, that's going to be documented in the therapeutic records.

The problem with that is everything in there is part of the record, and if you're trying to have a very confidential open, therapeutic session, then there might be things in there that you also do not want to come out later in a legal proceeding (if you choose to report to law enforcement).

You can seek medical care for an assault if you have injuries, and/or if you want prophylactics or STD prophylactics. You can do what’s called an “anonymous sexual assault exam,” and that doesn't go to the police, but it stays within the hospital records so that if you want to report at a later time, then you can activate that. But the record is there.

It's important for survivors to know they can seek medical care, go to a hospital and they can even get a rape kit exam done. They can say, “I want this to be anonymous,” and it will not get reported to the police.

Here is more information from Bay Area Women Against Rape about a survivor's choice on whether or not to report to police.

What if you’ve experienced sexual harassment or assault by a police officer, but you’re doubting or rationalizing the situation?

It's really important for women to trust their intuition. I think a lot of times, we do second guess ourselves.

I would recommend people to read (a) book by Gavin de Becker, "The Gift of Fear" … What he talks about in this book, is we usually have that little voice in our head that tells us when something's not quite right. Some people listen to that voice, they trust that voice. And some people go and second guess it.

Most people don't want to be afraid. They don't want to come across as being paranoid or doing things out of fear. So that voice is actually kind of trained in the wrong way in our brains. A lot of times you'll get a tightness in your stomach — or you’ll get like a sense that something is not right here — and I think that we need to trust that even if there's no proof, trust the voice that says, “Something's not right here. You need to get out of here."

Here is more information from RAINN on sexual violence laws in California.

What resources does RAINN provide for survivors of sexual assault?

RAINN is an anonymous and confidential hotline. Anyone can come to our hotline to get support and our hotline staff is 24/7. If you need to stay on the phone with someone for two hours, they're going to stay on the phone with you for that long.

It's an amazing service: It's free, it's confidential. And depending on what your needs are, if you want to understand the legal process, if you just want some emotional support or if you want to be connected to services in your local area — all of that can be done through our hotline.

Additional Resources:

Here is a list of resources for survivors of sexual assault and harassment:

  • RAINN's National Sexual Assault Hotline provides support, information, advice or referrals by online chat or phone at (800) 656-HOPE. Here is a search tool to find local, independent sexual assault service providers.
  • Bay Area Women Against Rape has a 24-hr Sexual Assault Crisis Hotline at (510) 845-7273 and provides in-person counseling services, and as well as hospital, police and courtroom accompaniments.
  • San Francisco Women Against Rape has a 24-hour hotline for crisis counselors to offer support, information and resources at (415) 647-RAPE.
  • The Bay Area Trauma Recovery Center helps facilitate healing for survivors of trauma and violence, including mental health services, and medical services for sexual assault within 72 hours.

Bay Area Women Against Rape has tips on how to support loved one who has experienced sexual violence.

Here is a referral guide from San Francisco Women Against Rape that includes more reources.

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