Amherst Police auditing sexual assault files
High number of complaints dismissed as unfounded
AmHERST
Amherst Police are auditing a number of files after an investigation showed a high rate of sexual assault complaints had been dismissed as unfounded.
A Globe and Mail investigation into sexual assault cases across the country, from 2010 to 2014, put the rate of unfounded cases in Amherst at 49 per cent. Incidents are listed as unfounded when it is decided that a criminal violation did not take place.
“At this point I cannot provide the reason why our percentage is significantly higher than the national and provincial averages,” Amherst Police Chief Ian Naylor said. “Before we are able to come to any conclusions we must gather more specific information.”
Naylor said deputy chief Dwayne Pike, community policing officer Const. Tom Wood, school liaison officer Michelle Harrison and the county’s sexual violence outreach worker
Nichole Long have been assigned to audit the files.
The Globe & Mail investigation found the number of sexual
assault cases cleared as unfounded ranged between 44 and 50 per cent during the five years with 42 or 86 allegations
during that period cleared as unfounded.
In Cumberland County, the five-year rate was 26 per cent or 21 of 82 allegations. Parrsboro’s was 32 per cent. There were no figures for Oxford or Springhill.
“The numbers alone do not confirm there is a problem; however, they do raise a concern,” Naylor said.
Naylor said the results of the audit will be shared with the town’s police commission at its April meeting. Any issues that are identified will be addressed.
He said it’s important people don’t jump to conclusions until the data is reviewed and analyzed.
“One of the news articles mentions that four years ago the Ottawa Police Service identified that errors in file scoring contributed to a higher than average unfounded rate,” Naylor said.
“Since taking steps to correct the scoring errors, their unfounded rates have reduced from 38 per cent in 2012 to 12 per cent in 2014. If this has happened with just a few of our files it would drop our percentage significantly as we are dealing with smaller numbers compared to a larger agency.”