Sex-assault cases rise, strain police

Service seeks four new officers as #MeToo movement rallies victims

Calgary police say four additional detectives are needed for its sexcrimes unit to help cope with an “unprecedented” caseload increase as more victims of sexual assault are coming forward.

The growing #MeToo and #TimesUp movements resulted in a 32 per cent increase in the number of sex crimes Calgary police dealt with last year, with 391 files compared to 296 in 2016, police say.

In 2018, 67 sex-crime files have been opened to date. Police say there was also a 30 per cent increase in child-abuse cases between 2016 and 2017.

“Victims of sexual assaults are now willing to come forward because they believe that they are going to be believed and that’s where we’re seeing a difference,” said Insp. Monty Sparrow after presenting the data during a Calgary police commission meeting on Tuesday.

“The gathering of DNA, the internet, social media, have significantly complicated the cases from 20 years ago. What used to be a three- or four-day investigation and then waiting for DNA is now sometimes months and months of data gathering on social media and on devices.”

There are eight detectives working in the Calgary Police Service’s sex-crimes unit.

Advocacy groups in Calgary estimate 92 per cent of sexual assaults are not reported.

Chief Roger Chaffin called the caseload increase “unprecedented.” He called the #MeToo movement important and said there’s a need to not only see these cases through but to also help prevent them from happening.

“It’s a better sign that they’re coming forward and asking us to get involved,” Chaffin said.

“It’s been important in the western world to give rise to these issues that all of us know have likely have happened and been kept silent. The fact that that veil is being lifted, people are coming forward and talking about these issues and wanting these things addressed is a better comment about life today, that we are willing to speak openly about these issues and try to ensure they don’t occur to the volume they did in the past.”

Calgary police recently introduced a sexual offence co-ordinator within the sex crimes unit for a one-year pilot, with the responsibility of reviewing each sexual offence case, including sexual assaults, and providing coaching to street personnel who aren’t trained to deal with these cases specifically.

The co-ordinator has also reviewed more than 500 sexual offence files following a Globe and Mail report last year that showed an average of 19 per cent of these files across the country were deemed “unfounded” by local police services.

It’s been important in the western world to give rise to these issues that all of us know have likely have happened and been kept silent.

Most academic research shows two to eight per cent of all sexual offence cases should be deemed unfounded, a term referring to incidents determined through police investigation to not have occurred or even been attempted.

The rate reported for Calgary was 10 per cent.

Following a review, police determined 48 cases were incorrectly coded as unfounded.

“Of the 48, one was reinvestigated, the other 47 were recoded as inactive,” Sparrow said. “There was evidence in the investigation to prove that the offence occurred, but there wasn’t enough evidence in the investigation to identify the offender.”

Police commission chair Brian Thiessen said lack of training was the cause of the coding error, but added officers will be retrained by the sexual offence co-ordinator so it won’t happen again.

“When you code a sexual assault as unfounded, it gives the impression to victims that they’re not being heard, that the police didn’t believe them,” he said.