No more will handcuffed rapists and their sobbing victims pass each other in the police hallways.
No more will women, still stunned by a sexual assault, have to sit in a dingy waiting room marked with graffiti, waiting to talk to the police.
No more will detectives, tasked with unraveling perhaps the most emotionally wrenching crime, end their day by picking their way through an unlit parking lot filled with potholes.
Yesterday, Mayor Street, Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson, and a bunch of beaming officers and victims' advocates formally opened the $2.2 million headquarters of the Philadelphia Police Special Victims Unit.
After two decades of being shuttled from one decrepit office to the next, the 86-member sex-crimes squad will work in modern offices on the first four floors of an office tower on the grounds of Episcopal Hospital, Front Street and Lehigh Avenue.
Street said during the opening that for too many victims in the past, the investigation proved "almost as traumatic as the original incident."
That, he added, "just wasn't right. So we are delighted to announce today that something has been done about it."
Street listened intently and took his time as Capt. John Darby, who commands Special Victims, took him on a tour of the facility, a quiet, carpeted place with beige workstations for investigators, tasteful waiting rooms for victims, big training and conference rooms, and separate internal paths for victims and suspects.
He also took time to thank music-industry publisher Kal Rudman. The foundation of Rudman and his wife, Lucille, gave police about $10,000 to help furnish waiting rooms at the new headquarters.
Those touring the facility were impressed with the interrogation rooms with one-way mirrors.
"Law and Order," said Alba Martinez, the city's Department of Human Services commissioner, referring to the interview rooms that are often center stage for the TV show's drama.
Martinez said she was making progress in plans to use the Episcopal building to house social workers who investigate sex crimes.
Such a move, plus the interview rooms with one-way glass, would spare children the ordeal of separate interviews with police and civilian investigators. This is a change already implemented in several big cities.
"I'm pursuing this aggressively," Martinez said.
Carol Tracy, executive director of the Women's Law Project, saluted police for their willingness to work with her organization, and other advocates, to improve performance.
She said the facility sent a signal to police that their work had value.
"I don't think there is a job in the city that is harder," she said. "The minimum they should have is really a good atmosphere."
The squad has been shifted around since its founding in 1981.
As District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham recalled yesterday during the opening, the squad once operated out of a former Park Police building in South Philadelphia - a place that smelled of manure on hot days.
Since 1995, the squad had been jammed into a space in a brick building on the grounds of the former Frankford Arsenal.
The arsenal unnerved many victims. They had to drive by a guardhouse to get inside. The complex is surrounded by a stone wall topped with razor wire. Parking meant avoiding potholes.
Inspector Joseph M. Mooney, whose command includes oversight of the Special Victims Unit, said the new facility was much more centrally located and thus easier for victims to get to.
It is also next to Episcopal's emergency room, one of two designated emergency rooms for rape victims.
The city endorsed moving from the arsenal in 2000 amid controversy over the unit's years of poor performance. Articles in The Inquirer disclosed that the squad, since it was founded, had refused to accept that many women had indeed been assaulted and had dumped their complaints with inadequate investigation.
Now, advocates and prosecutors agree that the squad is much improved.
The most recent comparative data, for 2001, showed that the squad had the highest rate of solving rapes among police forces in the top 10 cities.
