Review finds 70% of Hamilton 'unfounded' sex assault cases were improperly handled

More than two-thirds of sexual assault cases Hamilton police said were unfounded really weren't, a new community report concludes.

Reasons include investigators relyingon rape myths, interrogatingvictims like they're perpetrators and giving"disproportionate weight" to what the accused said.

These findings arefrom a new sex assault review report coming to Hamilton Police Services board Thursday. The community review report was commissioned by police andincluded members of the Sexual Assault Centre of Hamilton (SACHA), the Native Women's Centre and police investigators.

Its conclusions are in stark contrast to those reached by an internal review of unfounded casesdone by Hamilton police on their own, whichis also included in the overall report.

Overworked unit

The police review foundroughly the opposite percentages from the community review, concluding that that 75.1 per cent of unfounded cases were correctly classified as such, while 24.9 per cent weren't. Police did a random audit of more than 700 unfounded cases from 2010 to 2014, including child sex abuse cases.

All of thefolks on the team had moments where it was really difficult to understand what had happened to this woman, this victim- LenoreLukasik-Foss,SACHAexecutive director

The community reviewteam did a deeper audit of 63 sexual assault cases deemed unfoundedthat happened from 2010 to 2016.

Itfound that only 25per cent of cases deemed to be unfounded shouldhave been.

The report says 70 percent were "coded incorrectly," while threeper cent were undetermined.

While the community review examined fewer cases, it delved deeper into how each was handled.

The sexual assault unit is comprised of seven overworked officers handling an average of 90 cases each per year, the report says.

And that caseloadis growing, which means resources are stretched thinner. At peak times in2008, the unit handled 298 cases,Insp. Dave Hennick of the investigative services unit told CBC. In 2016, that was 545 cases.

LenoreLukasik-Foss, SACHAexecutive director, was part of the nine-person community review team. Shenoticed the lack of resources too.

Sexual assault cases are "nuanced and resource heavy," she said. "What we saw were good detectives getting bogged down."

Reasons the community report cited for the improper conclusions included:

• Relevant witnesses weren't interviewed.
• The properforensic testing not being done.
• Officers putting more weight on the stories of suspects than victims.
• Officersusinginterrogation techniques with victims.
• Officers relyingtoo heavily on stories being corroborated.
• Predeterminingan investigation's outcome before it ended.
• Detectives not applying reasonable grounds.

There was also a "reliance on rape myths," Lukasik-Foss said.

Those myths, she said, included undermining a victim's story because alcohol was involved, or because victim and perpetrator were already in a relationship.

'Really difficult to understand'

Lukasik-Foss said at times, what she saw in thefiles and videosmade her angry.

"All of us were at some point," she said. "All of thefolks on the team had moments where it was really difficult to understand what had happened to this woman, this victim."

The issue of police classifyingsexual assaultcomplaints as unfounded came to light in 2017, when a Globe and Mail article showed Hamilton police classified 30 per cent of sex assault cases as unfounded. The national average is 19 per cent.

The police services board voted to review the matter, although Hennick says the service has been working on this issue since 2015.

Kudos for the review

The 62-page report recommends hiring two more officersfor the sexual assault unit, which would bring the total to nine. It also recommended some measures that are already happening, including having victim services workers meet with victims before they're interviewed by police.

The review also recommends training to understand victim responses and the neurobiology of trauma, better policies, and a model that takes vulnerable populations into consideration, including people with mental health challenges, people who are street involved, and the Indigenous community.

We believe this report identifies where there are gaps in service and how we can address them.- Police Chief Eric Girt

Hennick said the service has already implemented better trainingfor every officer. Investigators threw themselves into this review, he said, and wanted it to be "collaborative" and "transparent."

"I believe we came up with a made-in-Hamilton model," he said, and "I'm really proud of that."

Chief Eric Girt issued a statement calling the review "important."

"In undertaking this review, we had one end goal to improve service delivery to victims of sexual assault," he said. "We believe this report identifies where there are gaps in service and how we can address them to deliver the best possible response and care to victims."

Lukasik-Foss said thefindings told people who work with victims what they already know that the system is broken.

"We should absolutely be concerned," she said, "but this is not news."