At the start of this year, Durham got its own SVU. If you enjoy the long-running “Law & Order” spin-off, you know these initials stand for Special Victims Unit.

For those less attuned to primetime television, the unit focuses on crimes of a sexual nature – everything from a flasher on the American Tobacco Trail earlier this year to rape and child molestation.

No specific incident led to the new unit.

“Forming a Special Victims Unit is something we had in the works for a while,” said Deputy Police Chief Larry Smith. “Once we had sufficient personnel, we created the unit.”

Sgt. Rodney Hunter, who has headed the unit since it started in January, said the department wanted to give victims specialized attention. “It’s a sensitive crime. It’s not like a robbery takes place.”

Creating the SVU did not require additional funding, said police spokesperson Kammie Michael. Rather, it involved reshuffling existing investigative units. So far, the SVU has handled 20 to 30 cases a month.

“This unit requires a specialized investigative staff who work with a lot of external partners,” Smith said. “Now all the investigators who handle sexual assault cases are under one supervisor and one commander. This unit allows us to provide better service for sexual assault victims.”

In addition to Hunter, the unit has seven officers and a corporal. Members receive extensive training that includes an eight-hour course at the N.C. Justice Academy on investigating the sexual victimization of children. A second 16-hour course tutors officers on the forensic interviewing of child victims and adult molesters.

Some of this training is done through the Durham Crisis Response Center, where officers are welcome to sit in on the center’s Sexual Assault Response Team meetings.

“For the size of our city, to not have a unit that focuses on sexual assault was – it just was not a good thing,” said Aurelia Sands Belle, executive director of the crisis center. The center had been talking with Police Chief Lopez about it since last year.

“He was committed to putting that unit together, and he did. And so we are extremely grateful for his foresight and his willingness to work with us on that,” Belle said.

The training the SVU investigators are receiving via the center takes a holistic approach to sex crimes and includes experts from areas such as forensics, legal prosecution, law enforcement and medical response.

“This is kind of taking their investigation skills to a different space,” Belle said.

“So far things are going pretty good,” Hunter said. Much of that has to do with the experience the investigators are bringing to the unit. Many have been police officers at least five years. “The unit is new, the investigators are not.”

The Special Victims Unit partners with the Victim’s Services Unit, where confidential services are provided to both victims and witnesses of an array of crimes, which include sexual assaults.

“I think having investigators specifically trained for these types of crimes and able to give them the full attention they need is very important,” Lopez said. “The crime of sexual assault is extremely violent and life-altering and needs to be dealt with in a mental-health sense as well as by law enforcement.”

This police work can bring a unique set of stresses to the officers, and Hunter emphasized their training helps prepare the officers for what can be particularly emotional situations.

“My children are pretty much grown,” he said, “but nonetheless it does happen to other people’s children and at times it can be hard.”