The New Westminster Police Department is rethinking how it handles sex assault cases after a Globe and Mailinvestigation appeared to show allegations of sexual assault were less likely to be taken seriously in the city.
Using statistics from police departments across the country, the Globe and Mail found that on average 19 per cent of sexual assault cases in Canada are classified as “unfounded.”
In New Westminster, however, 27 per cent of sexual assault allegations were deemed unfounded – eight per cent higher than the national average.
“I think, appropriately, everyone kind of reacted with a bit of surprise to it, and then wanted to get into what was occurring with those files,” said Chief Const. Dave Jones.
The Globe defines an unfounded file as an allegation of sexual assault where the investigator did not believe a criminal offence occurred or was attempted. In Canada, cases deemed unfounded are not reported to Statistics Canada and effectively disappear from public record, the Globe reported.
To find out how the department could improve its handling of sexual assault investigations, the New Westminster Police Department conducted an internal review and found that sex assault cases classified as “unsubstantiated” hadn’t been provided to the Globe and Mail.An unsubstantiated file is one where it cannot be determined whether or not a Criminal Code offence has occurred. Once the department included the unsubstantiated files, the number of sexual assaults deemed unfounded dropped to 17 per cent.
But that doesn’t change the fact there are some problems with theway sexual assault cases are dealt with, according to Deputy Chief Const. Dave Jansen.
“I actually commend The Globe and Mail for doing this,” he added. “I think it was great reporting on their behalf because this isn’t a crime type that we’re required to report out to Stats Can, so it’s not something that you would physically go through and look at within our statistics every year.”
That’s now set to change.
Jansen led a review into the department’s handling of sexual assault cases and came up with several recommendations.
The number 1 priority will be to create a dedicated unit to investigate what the department calls “power-based crimes.”
Power-based crimes happen where there is a power imbalance between the victim and the perpetrator. The department compared sex assault investigations to those pursued by the domestic violence response team and found unfounded rates for domestic violence cases are “very, very low even in comparison to assaults,” said Insp. Todd Matsumoto, one of the officers involved in the review.
Police officials found having a dedicated unit is what has made the difference.
The new power-based crimes unit will investigate sexual assaults and similar crimes like child sex crimes (currently handled by the major crime unit) using the best practices from the domestic violence response team. The unit will include a dedicated counsellor who acts as an advocate for the victim and provides support services throughout the investigation.
A formal investigation unit would also enable the department to provide more specialized training to officers so they are better equipped to handle such cases, Jansen said.
“The stats, obviously, raised our eyebrows, but what I think we want to make sure is that we provide the best service to victims of power-based crimes,” he added.
Other recommendations include reviewing cases of high-risk crimes like sexual assaults on a regular basis to stay on top of any trends or problems that could arise; and reviewing how they gather and report sex assault stats, including unfounded and unsubstantiated cases.
The department will begin implementing these recommendations right away with an update expected sometime in June.
