Wu spoke with police leaders after report on alleged serial rapist

Mayor Michelle Wu said she has spoken with Boston police leadership following a new WBUR investigation about a suspected serial rapist who evaded arrest for years despite DNA evidence in some cases.

Alvin Campbell has been accused of rape or sexual assault in 11 cases in and around Boston, including at least five in which police say his DNA was linked to the case. The first reported DNA match came from a 2016 case, four years before his arrest. Once in custody, police say they found evidence on Campbell's phone connecting him to at least 10 other sexual assaults against women.

Speaking on WBUR's Radio Boston Monday, Wu said she spoke with Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox about the case. She did not give any details of the conversation, but said in any case of sexual assault, it's important for police and other responding agencies to focus their efforts on the victims of the crime.

"The most important focus that I want the conversation to have is on those who had the courage to come forward and that justice should be served in this instance," she said. "And there is a legal and investigatory process that is still playing out on that front, and it's really important that we preserve the integrity of that process and so there are some limits on what can and can't be said."

Pressed on whether the police should have done more sooner, Wu instead said there is "tension" between being transparent and a state law that keeps reports of sexual assault out of the public record.

Wu said the law is intended to protect the victims of sexual assault, but that sometimes can prevent the public from being informed. Critics have said that law, written in an attempt to protect victims of rape and sexual assault, has instead served to obscure sex crimes and even shield perpetrators, making it harder to protect future victims.

"There may be a larger public policy question about whether that is the right balance in this moment," Wu said. "But I know when I've been involved in making sure that we could share information on previous incidences, for example, there's always this tension between the requirement and the goal of being transparent so that there can be full accountability and public knowledge about whether what happened is what should have happened."

Regardless of the restrictions under state law, Wu said she and Cox agreed that all of the agencies responding to a sexual assault must maintain clear communications so there's nothing "falling through the cracks on which party does what."

Campbell is the brother of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who was a Boston city councilor at the time of some of the alleged rapes. Medford police and the Suffolk County district attorney's office both have said Andrea Campbell has never interfered in her brother's case, and recused herself from the ongoing criminal investigation.

Alvin Campbell's trial is set for December.

Wu also spoke about Boston's budget, property taxes and her plans to reform the city's planning process during her discussion with Radio Boston's Tiziana Dearing.