'The clock is ticking': Fears raised Trump will now gut sex crimes investigation reforms

With President-elect Donald Trump poised to assume power after he is sworn in next January, federal officials overseeing reforms in multiple police departments and how they conduct sex crimes investigations are fearful their work will be shunted aside and their work shut down.

According to a report from the New York Times, two years ago the Department of Justice opened inquiries into 12 different police departments, including, "the New York Police Department’s storied, but scandal-scarred sex crimes unit" and, while the DOJ's investigations are ongoing, there are now worries the plug will be pulled by the incoming administration.

After noting Donald J. Trump is entering office office "vowing to end the sweeping scrutiny of the police" that President Joe Biden approved of,, the report states, "Mr. Trump’s re-election has prompted concern that the decision of whether to pursue reforms could rest with a president who is hostile to the idea."

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"Ellen Blain, who until recently was one of the federal prosecutors leading the investigation into the sex crimes unit, said Mr. Trump’s record in his first term suggested it was 'entirely possible' that his administration would block the Justice Department from securing a pact with New York’s police," the Times is reporting with Blain explaining, "I’m not the only one aware that the clock is ticking, but it is a hard fact that these investigations take a while."

"Now, on the cusp of his second term, the president-elect has privately signaled that he will end monitoring of the nation’s police, according to The Washington Post. At a rally last month in Charlotte, N.C., Mr. Trump accused Democrats of waging a war against law enforcement, adding, 'We will give our police back their power, protection, respect that they deserve,'" the Times is reporting before adding, "In New York, the Special Victims Unit investigates more than 14,000 sex crime complaints each year, according to the Police Department. Most cases examined by its 225 detectives and 45 police officers do not end in an arrest or prosecution, with victims complaining for decades that investigators were insensitive and rushed to close their cases without collecting valuable evidence."

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