“Coding error” blamed for high number of sexual assault cases deemed unfounded: Graham

Huntsville OPP Detachment Staff Sergeant John-Paul Graham was before Huntsville Council on Monday night to talk about the results of a review into the high numbers of sexual assault allegations deemed unfounded by police.

The provincial review was ordered by Ontario Police Commissioner Vince Hawkes in response to an investigative article published in the Globe and Mail last February. The article ranked Huntsville and Bracebridge police detachments among the highest across the country for dismissing as ‘unfounded’ sexual assault allegations brought to the detachments’ attention between 2010 and 2014.

Graham thanked council as well as community stakeholders within and outside of the community for their patience in awaiting the results of the promised review. He said the numbers in the Globe and Mail article, obtained through freedom of information requests, did not shine a favourable light on Huntsville or Muskoka.

“So I have to applaud the Commissioner in looking at this and not necessarily coming out to the media with a knee-jerk reaction and saying ‘this is what the problem is.’ What the organization wanted to do is look at the problem, analyze it and look at what we’re doing good, what we can improve,” he said of the audit. “Our Commissioner has ordered all regions within the OPP, which there’s five of them from Smith Falls to London, Orillia, North Bay and Thunder Bay, to form teams of highly educated and capable investigators with the team lead of reviewing these cases deemed to be unfounded,” he said.

“What they found in the review is that it seemed to be a coding error on the end result of the investigation and not necessarily an investigative error,” Graham told council.

So it turns out to be more of a records management error and not, again, the allusion that police don’t believe somebody coming in and making such an allegation to the police, that they were sexually assaulted. Huntsville OPP Detachment Staff Sergeant John-Paul Graham

The Globe article found that 55 per cent or 66 of the 121 sexual assault allegations brought to Huntsville police between 2010 and 2014 had been deemed unfounded. “If we actually reclassified some of those occurrences, we would actually be at 37 per cent,” said Graham.

He also noted that the Commissioner had the review extended to include an additional two years. “I could report back that in 2015 and 2016, Huntsville specifically would be at 11 per cent of unfounded sexual assaults.”

Graham tried to put those numbers into perspective and gave an example of a sexual assault case that could be deemed as ‘unfounded’ by police. “And just to give you a little bit of a perception or understanding of what an unfounded sexual assault could be, and from my experience here in Huntsville since 2015, is we would generally get a third-party complaint of a sexual assault. A friend of a friend was told that there was a sexual assault that may have happened in a function or a party and it was reported third-hand to the police. And so what we do is we assign an investigator to that complaint that’s been received by our communications centre or at the office, that is highly trained on investigating sexual assault,” explained Graham.

He said the investigator will seek out the potential victim but “in some of these cases, historically, the victim is not ready to disclose or willing to participate in the investigative process. Our office here in Huntsville would seek out that potential victim three or four other times providing opportunities for that disclosure to happen however in some cases it still comes with no results and so after all that being said, that case in itself would be classified as unfounded.”

He said police have been working with organizations such as Muskoka Victim Services, Muskoka Parry Sound Coordinated Sexual Assault Services, shelters and other related services in order to provide a more conducive atmosphere where the alleged victim might feel more comfortable disclosing the occurrence to police. “The officer may or may not be in uniform, they may or may not be at the police station and those [outside] locations are sought after to ensure that we’re able to draw out the information that’s required to pursue the perpetrator and bring them to justice.”

Graham added that not all police services across Canada are under the same records management system. He said as a result of the review, a committee has been formed in an effort to ensure that the classification of sexual assault crimes is consistent across all police services. He said police are working with Stats Canada to ensure that case clearing options are going to be “broader and they’ll be able to tell the outcome of that investigation, whether it’s unsubstantiated, not enough evidence to pursue the charges and then some [more options].”

He said the Commissioner has also formulated a strategy, as a result of the review, “to make sure that we’re improving on things. We do things well, we do things good, we can always do things better. So if we don’t learn from this review, then we’re going to continue making the same mistakes. We’re not perfect so the Commissioner has come out with the Victim Response Support Unit,” said Graham, adding that the unit will be based on three pillars: victim support first; investigative excellence as well as oversight. Oversight will involve a dedicated position from each OPP region, which will include civilians comprised of experts from related fields. He said they will likely meet on a quarterly basis to review related cases in each region.

“I’ve read the article and we’ve all been living this for several months now. I met with the Commissioner on the 12^th of September, like other detachment commanders. Business Management Bureau as well as Community Safety Services had led this review, which again was quite a bit of an undertaking and a priority for the Commissioner to ensure that we get a holistic look and overview of what that article from the Globe and Mail has portrayed for Muskoka,” said Graham.

I can tell you that the dialogue that came out of that article was good. It got people talking and I think it’s refocused our energy and our sights on ensuring the victims of crime are supported through the process, that we’re open to listening to them, and that we don’t have any other victimization throughout our communities.Huntsville OPP detachment Staff Sergeant John-Paul Graham

Councillor Nancy Alcock asked Graham about the oversight committees’ timeline and the process involved. Graham said the process has already begun in the region and names are being considered of people who are experts in their field. While those people will not necessarily comprise part of the actual police investigations, they would ensure that investigators have the training, “that they’re influencing positive change within the justice system, within these cases, and providing the support that victims or individuals need,” said Graham, adding that the Commissioner has indicated he’d like the committees established by the end of the year.

You can find more information about the OPP Victim Response Strategy and the findings of its review at this link.

Councillor Brian Thompson asked whether it might be feasible to have sexual assault investigations involving women investigated by female officers.

“We do have a diverse group of officers in our detachment that are trained specifically for sexual assaults,” said Graham. “You will never find one investigator dealing or supporting a person that has lived through a sexual assault. So we would have victim services involved, someone from the women’s shelter potentially involved with relocating the individual. We are very lucky in Huntsville to have a dozen female officers working in this office. There is one to two members working per platoon and they’re often involved in these types of investigations providing specific supports to those genders.”

Councillor Bob Stone, who has been anxiously awaiting the findings of police, said he’s satisfied “that things weren’t horribly wrong in the first place, but I’m thrilled that you used it as an opportunity to be so much better. But most importantly, to the survivors out there, you need to know that you will be heard, protected and cared for with compassion.”

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