HOUSTON -- Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt and Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos announced the formation of an investigative division dedicated to protecting families against domestic violence and victims of sex crimes, KPRC Local 2 reported.

The Special Crimes Division was created by the Houston Police Department to improve investigative effectiveness and efficiency in addressing violent crimes against families and women.

The division is comprised of the Family Violence Unit and the Sex Crimes Unit, both previously part of the Homicide Division, located at HPD Headquarters in downtown Houston.

“We believe this realignment of resources, coupled with additional allocation of personnel, will assist us in our efforts to help people victimized by theses types of violent crimes,” Hurtt said.

Lykos said, "I salute Chief Hurtt and the Houston Police Department for creating this division that will better serve and protect our citizens. This initiative will reduce violence, ensure compassionate assistance to victims, and enable more effective prosecution of predators,” she added.

The HPD Family Violence Unit offers a decentralized service delivery model that has physical locations housing investigators at four separate police stations.

Over the past few months, HPD has worked collaboratively with Lykos and Sonia Corrales, vice president of the Houston Area Women’s Center, in an effort to improve response to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

From January through the end of September 2009, Houston police reported 10,000 aggravated assaults in Houston and up to 40 percent of those were family violence cases. In the same time period, there were 623 sexual assaults in Houston and up to half of the suspects were known by their victims.