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During my 30 years with the New York Police Department, I found my time as the Commanding Officer of the Manhattan Special Victims Squad to be unique — the most rewarding and the most difficult. My eyes were opened to an aspect of law enforcement that few experience and few understand. When I first took command of this squad, I was unaware of the unique type of investigations for which I was now responsible. Investigating sex crimes and child abuse within Manhattan’s 22 precincts (New York City’s five Boroughs are comprised of 76 precincts) turned out to be an unparalleled field of the investigative domain for which there were few rules and even fewer experts to consult. Like the typical investigator and the typical police official before me, I had neglected to grasp the distinctive nature of these investigations. The devastating impact to the victim (both emotionally and physically) and the consequences of a substandard investigation are significant.