Sexual assault data entered wrong in Kelowna, Mountie review finds
Credit to Author: Mike Raptis| Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2020 05:45:55 +0000
Poor data entry, rather than police indifference, explains why many sexual assault complaints appear to be dismissed in Kelowna, the RCMP say.
A classification error made it appear Kelowna police were more likely than their counterparts elsewhere to deem such reports to be unfounded, the RCMP announced Thursday after a months-long review.
“The use of the wrong Uniform Crime Reporting codes was the most common issue identified during the review,” police said in a release.
“Based on (the) review and the correction in the classification of files, Kelowna’s unfounded sexual assault rate is in fact in line with the provincial average,” the release states.
Last year, it emerged that Kelowna RCMP had dismissed almost 40 per cent of sexual assault complaints as unfounded, a rate three times higher than the national average.
The coding term ‘unfounded’ means that the investigating officer did not believe that a crime had occurred, or there was no evidence with which to proceed.
In 2018, the Kelowna RCMP received 82 reports of sexual assault, and deemed 30 cases unfounded after investigation.
The review, conducted by the RCMP National Headquarters Sexual Assault Review Team, looked in detail at those 30 cases. Twelve of them were “incorrectly scored”, meaning they should not have been classed as unfounded, the review found.
Thirteen of the 30 files were considered through the review process to be unfounded. Five of the files were recommended for further investigation.
Review team members also looked at 36 sexual assault files classified as “unfounded” by Kelowna RCMP in 2019.
Of those, 17 were “incorrectly scored”, and 12 were deemed to be unfounded. Seven files were recommended for further investigation.
Essentially, the review has found that the Kelowna RCMP detachment used the wrong data entry codes when passing information on sexual assault investigations to Statistics Canada, resulting in the appearance that the number of cases deemed to be without merit was much higher than it was.
To prevent similar mistakes in the future, police say RCMP employees whose responsibilities include data collection will get better training on how to do their jobs, beginning in March.
But in addition, an overall review of the Kelowna detachment, “specific to the quality of investigations and supervisions” will be conducted, the release states.
As well, all Kelowna RCMP members “are in the process of receiving additional training with respect to sexual consent law, and additional training, formal and informal, on trauma-informed practices and bias awareness”, the release states.
In March, Kelowna RCMP will also create a dedicated sexual assault unit. Its responsibilities will include ensuring all sexual assault files are properly investigated, accurately documented, and properly recorded for statistical purposes.
Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran, who took some criticism for what seemed to be unstinting initial support of the RCMP after concerns were raised, said Thursday he welcomed the forthcoming changes at the detachment.
“Public safety is council’s top priority and we expect any contractor working for the city to ensure its operations meet that expectation,” Basran said in a statement.