Police must keep track

How can you know the size of a problem unless you measure it?

According to Halifax Regional Police, drink tampering – using roofies and other similar drugs at city bars, especially downtown – is uncommon.

But they admit they haven’t been tracking suspected druggings, so how would they know?

Anecdotal evidence from city hospitals suggests it’s actually quite common to see young women coming in, complaining of sudden loss of motor functions, blackouts and memory loss, after having just a few drinks at a bar.

Based on what he sees and hears, Dr. Sam Campbell, chief of emergency at the Halifax Infirmary, says he is worried it’s happening a lot more than many people realize.

He doubts many of those young women report incidents to police.

Police should realize that if victims see reporting possible drink tampering to law enforcement accomplishes nothing — which, given the fact they don’t track such incidents, is under- standable — there’s little incentive to do so.

Perhaps that’s why police think the phenomenon is relatively rare.

Studies in other jurisdictions point in a different direction.

In the U.S., researchers found between six and 8.5 per cent of college students suspected their drinks had been tampered with.

One Australian study of 805 individuals reported 25 per cent of 18to 35-year-olds said they’d had their drinks spiked.

Such statistics strongly suggest there indeed might be a problem in a university town like Halifax, where tens of thousands of university students study, live and go looking for entertainment.

If drink tampering were so rare, why would so many young people know the drill — stay safe, keep an on eye on your drink?

Tracking drink tampering wouldn’t be rocket science. Police could simply add that field to their crime report databases.

Data on such incidents would pro- vide, as experts point out, a way to look at patterns, including where incidents are happening and when.

That information, which should be publicly released whenever feasible, would also increase pressure for stronger countermeasures, including better video surveillance at bars.

In an incident widely reported this spring, two women came forward after being drugged, but cameras at the establishment where their drinks were spiked didn’t cover the portion of the bar where they were sitting.

In this day and age, with the appropriate increase in attention to preventing sexual assault, ending victim-blaming and simply protecting young people from predators, the way Halifax Regional Police currently handles reports of drink tampering isn’t good enough.

Turning up the heat on perpetrators, hopefully including arrests and convictions, would go a long way toward making spiking drinks truly rare.