RCMP headquarters in Ottawa is pictured in this Sept. 13, 2019 file photo.Dave Chan
Kelowna Mounties, under fire for high rates of sexual-assault files where investigators did not believe a crime had occurred, have reopened a dozen files from the past two years.
The further investigations in the Okanagan city about 390 kilometres east of Vancouver follow a review of the unfounded sexual-assault files that was conducted in Ottawa by the RCMP’s Sexual Assault Review Team (SART), based at the force’s national headquarters.
The decision involves five files from 2018 and seven files from 2019, according to the Mounties.
“Unfounded” is a coding term for complaints to police that means the investigating officer did not believe a crime occurred.
Last fall, the RCMP disclosed that almost 40 per cent of sexual-assault complaints made to the Kelowna detachment were dismissed as unfounded, a rate three-times higher than the country’s average. As a result, the detachment requested the review of 2018 and 2019 unfounded files.
But based on the review, the force has found that the rate in 2018 was actually 15.9 per cent, with 13 out of 82 investigations unfounded, said Corporal Jocelyn Noseworthy, a spokeswoman for the Kelowna detachment. The equivalent figure for 2019 was not immediately available.
The Mounties say staff coding errors with their detachment in Kelowna are to blame for the high number of sex-assault complaints deemed unfounded.
The force says staff used the wrong codes in the Uniform Crime Reporting system, which is used to manage statistics about reported crimes, including whether a crime is founded or unfounded. “Based on the SART review and the correction in the classification of files, Kelowna’s unfounded sexual assault rate is in fact in line with the provincial average,” a summary of the review’s finding said.
Cpl. Noseworthy said the force has launched new training for civilian staff to ensure such a situation does not occur again.
The Ottawa-based review team was formed to take a second look at RCMP sexual-assault files after the 2017 publication of The Globe and Mail’s “Unfounded” investigative series, which found sexual-assault complaints twice as likely to be dismissed as unfounded as complaints in other assault cases.
In addition to further investigations, the detachment is creating a dedicated sexual-assault unit that will review all reported cases to ensure they have been properly handled. It will also offer guidance to officers on the best practices for investigating such cases.
Michelle Novakowski, executive director of the Central Okanagan Elizabeth Fry Society – which advocates for women in the criminal-justice system – said she is skeptical about assertions of clerical errors.
However, she said she was pleased to see new investigative resources deployed to deal with sexual assaults. “It is something that has been a long time coming and that we have been talking about and asking for,” she said.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said he expects Kelowna RCMP and all police in B.C. to "report accurately” on their files.
“I know that Statistics Canada was working with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to ensure reliability and consistency in how crimes reported to police in Canada are recorded," the minister said in a statement.
Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran said in an e-mail that he is satisfied with the steps the RCMP has taken to address questions about their reporting of such files, and confident in the detachment’s ability to serve the city.