Inspector Chris Newcombe oversees the sex-assault and child-abuse unit for the local police in Ontario's Halton Region, which has adopted new policies arising from The Globe and Mail’s Unfounded series.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
Halton police had once been among the worst in the country when it came to dismissing sexual-assault complaints as “unfounded.” The service – which is one of the largest municipal forces in Canada and serves a region just west of Toronto – had a 30-per-cent unfounded rate in 2017, well above the national average of 19 per cent, which itself was a troublingly high number.
As of 2021, the most recent year available, the Halton Regional Police Service had an unfounded rate of 4 per cent – one of the lowest in Canada.
Halton’s efforts to transform how it handles sexual-assault complaints stems from a Globe and Mail investigation that revealed police across the country had been discarding one out of every five allegations as false or baseless. “It was right there in black and white,” recalls Halton Inspector Chris Newcombe. Initially, there was some feeling of defensiveness, he concedes. Being confronted with an unflattering picture of yourself can be “tough to swallow,” he said, “but when you look at the big picture, we knew we needed to make change.”
Within days of the series’ publication, the service announced it would be reviewing sexual-assault files closed as unfounded. Then the police board distributed a survey to complainants asking about their experience reporting to the Halton police. An advisory committee was established, led by local front-line advocates. The Halton police also contacted clinical psychologist Lori Haskell, who specializes in this work and who was featured in the original Unfounded report.
“A big thing for us was training. We needed to train our people to understand the neurobiology of trauma,” Insp. Newcombe said.
Since 2017, Dr. Haskell has led 134 police training sessions, including with the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, Canadian military police and many municipal services, as well as additional sessions with judges and Crown attorneys. Her goal is to unpack what’s happening in the brain and body when a person is terrified and fearful for their life.
The training provides biological explanations for some of the behaviours that a person who has been raped may exhibit, which may seem counterintuitive. For example, the reason why a person may not call for help is that stress can impair thinking. And the reason why they may struggle to recount an attack in chronological order is that stress can change the way memories are processed.
Dr. Haskell teaches police how to conduct a trauma-informed interview. “It’s not about not asking the tough questions,” she recently told The Globe. “It’s about creating a space for the person to feel accepted and safe.”
If a sexual-assault complainant feels like they’re being interrogated, the detective is not going to get the best possible interview. “When people feel safe, they have better access to their memories,” Dr. Haskell said. “They’ll feel more comfortable talking about the moments that are embarrassing or humiliating. No one wants to talk about those things when they’re feeling challenged or blamed.”
In addition to the training, Insp. Newcombe says the service made changes to its policies around who had the ability to dismiss a case as unfounded. Going forward, a supervisor needed to be involved in this decision.
Chondrena Vieira-Martin, chair of Halton's sexual-assault advisory committee, says police have made great strides but rape culture remains a problem in society.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
The last part of the Halton force’s efforts involved a local advisory committee, which ran training for officers on the dangers of rape myths and stereotypes – for example, the archaic idea that a person can invite sexual advances by wearing revealing clothing – and how to support complainants by ensuring they fully understand what happens at each stage of the reporting process and that they’re connected with appropriate counselling resources.
This community group also reviewed all sexual-assault complaints that were deemed unfounded, as well as a sample of other cases. This continued up until the pandemic. The committee then provided recommendations to Halton police. It pushed the police to implement training around consent laws – among other things – and encouraged the department to improve its communication with complainants, for example about the status of their case.
Chondrena Vieira-Martin, executive director of Thrive Counselling in Halton, is the chair of the advisory committee. Ms. Vieira-Martin says her group meets with police on a regular basis to discuss how the service is approaching sexual-assault cases.
She said that, overall, she feels the Halton police have made great strides forward. At the same time, Ms. Vieira-Martin said, rape culture is still a problem in society, and police officers are part of that society, so it’s not surprising that challenges still come up.
“It feels like whack a mole. You tamp down one idea and it pops up in some other way,” she said. For example, issues still come up with how officers deal with vulnerable people, individuals who may be struggling with addiction or mental illness.
Still, she is hopeful.
“Personally, I feel our local police are doing a better job,” she said. “I think they understand more about trauma and I think they’re more receptive to hearing from the community groups who work with survivors. We have an audience at all times who are willing to work with us and find solutions.”
NOTE: To calculate the percentage of complaints that result in a charge, The Globe divided the number of cases resulting in a charge by the number of complaints that are considered founded allegations. This is consistent with Statistics Canada’s methodology. Unfounded cases, because they are considered illegitimate reports, are not included.
Robyn Doolittle