Community Policing (Season 17, Episode 5)
Premise: Hunting a pattern rapist, three detectives shoot and kill an unarmed young man, and Barba asks a grand jury to indict them while Benson defends the officers.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 17, Episode 5
- Starring
- Lt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Lt. Declan Murphy (Donal Logue), ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza)
- Guest stars
- Scott William Winters as Detective Joe Dumas, Robert John Burke as IAB Lieutenant Ed Tucker, Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Captain Reece, Leslie Odom Jr. as Reverend Curtis Scott, Daveed Diggs as Counselor Henderson
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Story: Kevin Fox & Brianna Yellen; Teleplay: Warren Leight & A. Zell Williams
Summary
“Community Policing” finds Benson, now a lieutenant, at the second push-in rape in two weeks in the same Harlem precinct. An armed man followed Cynthia Harris into her apartment and raped her, pistol-whipped her husband, Alec, when he came home and made him watch, and sexually assaulted their 12-year-old daughter, Sophie, who is found elsewhere in the building. Alec’s brother is a police officer. After Benson briefs Captain Reece’s officers, a canvass with a sketch goes nowhere until Cynthia’s bank card is used at a bodega ATM. A call for backup sends officers after a man in a basketball jersey toward the Clayton Powell houses, and Detective Joe Dumas, known as Doom, Detective Louise Campesi and Sgt. Kevin Donlan open fire on him in a doorway. No gun is found, only keys, and the man, 22-year-old Terrence Reynolds, dies.
One victim picks Terrence from a photo array and another is unsure, and Benson notices that the officers’ statements match almost word for word. The DNA then clears Terrence, a college student who worked at an animal hospital: the two rapes match each other, not him. Protests spread, and the DA has Barba put the officers before a grand jury, setting him against Benson, who believes the shooting followed procedure. Deputy Commissioner Hank Abraham pushes for a quick clearance, while Reverend Curtis Scott and the family’s lawyer, Henderson, plan their own inquiry. Lt. Declan Murphy turns up from an assignment in Serbia, learns that Rollins is seven months pregnant and that the baby is his, and says he will not walk away.
Barba shows the grand jurors a bystander’s video of Terrence fumbling with his keys at a locked door and turning as if to raise his hands, with the shots continuing after he falls; the footage soon goes public. Benson testifies that procedure was followed, though Barba notes that she has chased many suspects and shot only two. Dumas, who fired three times while the others emptied their guns, concedes that Terrence would be alive had they waited half a second. Jurors ask about stronger charges, and Barba explains the law on intent.
Spoiler, the ending: The grand jury indicts Donlan and Campesi for first-degree manslaughter and Dumas for reckless endangerment. Officers blame Barba, and one of the indicted officers turns on Dumas over his testimony. The episode ends with word that a 24-year-old rookie officer with two children has been shot dead at a traffic stop, and the Mayor is on his way.
Why it stands out
- Benson’s first case as a lieutenant; she is credited as Lieutenant from this episode.
- Leslie Odom Jr. and Daveed Diggs, of Broadway’s “Hamilton,” guest star as Reverend Curtis Scott and the Reynolds family’s lawyer.
- Donal Logue returns as Lt. Declan Murphy, revealed as the father of Rollins’s baby.