Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Why did Detective Joe Velasco leave the SVU? Details explored

In the latest episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Detective Joe Velasco bade goodbye to the SVU team. In Episode 3 of Season 27, which premiered on October 9, 2025, Velasco said his final goodbye to Captain Olivia Benson and Sergeant Fin Tutuola as he was going on an undercover DEA mission and would be relocating to San Diego.

After meeting with Chief Tynan, he shared with Benson about the new assignment in which he is tasked by the DEA to catch a sinister criminal. After saying goodbye to Benson, who told him to do what he is good at, and later meeting Fin for the last time, Velasco (Octavio Pisano), who joined the series in Season 23 of SVU, left the precinct in the latest episode.

More on this in our story.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Why did Detective Joe Velasco leave the SVU? Details explored

At the beginning of Episode 2 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 27, Velasco was seen talking to a couple of DEA agents. He later shared with Benson about an undercover mission that they wanted to hire him for after his successful operations in the drug runs.

While Benson promised not to tell Chief Tynan about it, in the latest episode of the procedural series, Velasco found that the DEA agents went directly to Tynan to discuss the mission. He was called to meet the Chief.

After the meeting, he met Benson and shared with him about how the DEA wanted to give him more undercover missions, and this time the criminal was too wicked. Benson knew the mission was important, but Velasco did not want to leave the squad like this, not when one of them was already injured.

However, Benson told him that she does not want her members to be in the squad 'out of loyalty,' as she was there because she thought the SVU was the best place for her to be. She told him to be in a place where he would be most useful. Velasco shared about how excited he was about his previous undercover assignment, which gave the hint that he had already decided what he wanted to do, which is to relocate to San Diego and finish the undercover mission.

After saying goodbye to Benson, he went to meet Fin (Ice-T). They discussed their pasts and the reason they both joined the force before saying goodbye to each other. While the case that the SVU team investigated in Episode 3 was complex and aggravating, the bittersweet moment of Velasco bidding farewell was the highlight of it.

More about Detective Joe Velasco from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Octavio Pisano, who plays Detective Joe Velasco, joined Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the premiere episode of Season 23 in 2021. He was introduced as the stoic and brooding detective.

Gradually, due to his passion for his work and camaraderie with the members, he became a crucial part of the SVU squad and helped them catch numerous criminals. In the Season 26 finale, Benson promoted him, and he became Detective Second Grade.

Therefore, his farewell in Episode 3 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 27 was emotional and heartbreaking. Velasco has appeared in 79 episodes in the four years that he was part of the series.

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