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Elizabeth Wakefield called 911 but got no response from the police, she said.Credit.Flo Ngala for The New York Times
To the Editor:
I have worked on improving the New York Police Department’s response to gender-based crimes since 1978. Your article reveals multiple policing weaknesses.
First, after the second attack, with no apparent motive, on women, someone at the Police Department should have wondered if women were in danger at the subway station in question. Instead, shoddy investigative work failed to identify the perpetrator after the first attacks. A lack of coordination between the precinct and the N.Y.P.D.’s Transit Bureau led each to believe that fewer attacks had taken place. Warnings to the public were delayed, and there was a failure to respond to a 911 call reporting a similar crime.