The NYPD is encouraging sexual assault victims to come forward — launching a new ad campaign labeled "The Call is Yours." Our Michael Scotto has the story.

This moving billboard will soon hit the streets.

And this ad will appear in a thousand subway cars, on 200 buses and inside yellow taxis.

The idea is to get more sexual assault victims to come forward to police.

"We're open for business," said Deputy Police Commissioner Susan Herman. "No crime is too far in the past. Every single one will be investigated."

The new push comes a week after the city's Department of Investigation released a scathing report alleging the police department's special victims division is understaffed and not properly reviewing sexual assault cases.

It also comes as the department is seeing an increase in reported rapes, as the overall crime rate continues to decline.

The NYPD says 380 rapes were reported in the first three months of the year, an increase of 74, or nearly 25 percent over the same period of 2017.

But police officials say the figures are skewed because 35 percent of the alleged rapes occurred before this year.

It's not all that unusual for victims to wait to come forward.

"We do see the outliers," said Dermot Shea, NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies. "It's not a lot. But it's routine. Twenty, thirty years in the past. I'll see those."

But investigators believe several high-profile sexual assault cases, such as the one involving Harvey Weinstein, have empowered more victims to report such attacks.

Even so — police officials acknowledge it is still not always easy to get victims to come forward. A 2016 Justice Department study found 70% of sexual assaults are not reported to police.

"It's very difficult for victims to come forward," Deputy Commissioner Susan Herman. "It's very hard to know that you're going to relive every detail of the rape or sexual assault."

The NYPD is urging sexual assault survivors to call 911 or the Special Victims Division 24-hour hotline, 212-267-RAPE (7273).