Saskatoon police looking at new approach to sexual assault cases

Over 1,800 sexual assaults have been reported to Saskatoon police since 2011, 284 of those were filed as unfounded.

Right now, sexual assault cases are filed in two categories: founded and unfounded.

But a new report presented Thursday to the Board of Police Commissioners is shedding some light on the challenges of the current system. The findings show that police believe a sexual assault may have occurred in 17 per cent of those unfounded cases.

“Inside those unfounded files, were files that could’ve been coded as founded but with not enough evidence to proceed with a charge,” Saskatoon police Supt. Dave Haye said.

READ MORE: Regina experts weigh-in on how to help prevent others from having to say “me too”

The report is in response to an investigation by the Globe and Mail that found one in five sexual assaults reported to police in Saskatchewan were filed as unfounded.

Of the 284 cases reviewed in the report by former police inspector Shelley Ballard, 84 per cent were deemed clearly unfounded. The reasons being either no offence occurred, the incident was consensual, or the complaint was false.

The Saskatoon Sexual Assault Centre says those statistics could deter victims from coming forward.

“Fear of not being believed is one of the major reasons people don’t report to anyone, never mind police,” Faye Davis, executive director of the Saskatoon Sexual Assault Centre, said. “So we need to deal with that.”

READ MORE: Saskatchewan man sentenced to 8 years for sexual assaults on granddaughter

The message from police is they’re open and listening to the victims.

“The story that has kind of been sent out there right now is that we don’t believe victims, well we do believe victims,” Haye said. “What this category allows us to say is yes we believe you, and yes we’re going to code the file like we believe you when we submit it for statistical gathering.”

The Sexual Assault Centre supports a move to include the ‘Founded but Unsubstantiated’ category, and believes it will lead to more reporting of sexual assault crimes and raise awareness with more accurate statistics. Currently, the Sexual Assault Centre receives more sexual assault complaints than Saskatoon police.

“That’s going to help people understand that sexual assault prevalence is much higher than we think,” Davis said.

Saskatoon police are now recommending the coding to the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which will look at implementing the change nationally.

Locally, the police are working on a 15-minute refresher course for front-line officers dealing with sexual assault complaints.