When police officers are predators: One teen's story
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2024
⏱️ 41 minutes
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Summary
Today, the story of a teenager who was sexually abused by a police officer, and her journey to find justice.
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Americans have been forced to reckon with sexual misconduct committed by teachers, clergy, coaches and others with access to and authority over children. But there is little awareness of child sex crimes perpetrated by members of another profession that many children are taught to revere and obey: law enforcement.
A Washington Post investigation has found that over the past two decades, hundreds of police officers have preyed on children, while agencies across the country have failed to take steps to prevent these crimes.
Today, reporter Jessica Contrera shares the story of Nicole, a teenager who was abused by a New Orleans police officer, and her fight for justice. You can learn more about how this series was reported, our methodology and our project team here.
Today’s show was produced by Ariel Plotnick. It was mixed by Sam Bair and edited by Monica Campbell.
Thank you to Lynda Robinson, Jenn Abelson, John D. Harden, Courtney Kan, Rennie Svirnoskiy, David Fallis, Anu Narayanswamy, Hayden Godfrey, Riley Ceder, Nate Jones, Razzan Nakhlawi and Alice Crites.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A quick heads up before we get started. This episode is about child sexual assault. |
| 0:10.0 | This story is about a teenage girl in Louisiana. |
| 0:14.0 | We're going to protect her identity |
| 0:15.8 | by calling her by her middle name, which is Nicole. |
| 0:18.8 | I wanted to spend time with Nicole because of something that happened to her back in |
| 0:27.1 | 2020 when she was 14 years old. |
| 0:30.4 | Jessica Contreira is a reporter at the post and over the past year she has spent a lot of time with |
| 0:36.2 | Nicole who was 17 when they met. |
| 0:39.7 | Nicole reported being sexually assaulted by a friend of hers. |
| 0:43.8 | And on the day that she made that report, |
| 0:45.6 | she met a New Orleans police officer. |
| 0:48.6 | A few months later, that same police officer |
| 0:51.5 | sexually assaulted Nicole. |
| 0:53.6 | That really struck me. |
| 0:55.9 | This person who responded to her report of sexual assault, |
| 1:01.3 | who was supposed to be there to protect her ended up assaulting her too. |
| 1:06.7 | In an exclusive investigation, Jessica and a team of journalists at the post found that over the past two decades hundreds of police |
| 1:14.6 | officers have preyed on children and the children who are most likely to be |
| 1:18.7 | targeted by officers are teenage girls just like Nicole. |
| 1:25.8 | As a society, we have been forced to reckon with the risks that are present |
| 1:31.5 | when you have adults with a lot of authority over and access |
| 1:37.8 | to kids. |
... |
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