Since 2017, a team of advocates for the prevention of violence against women has been reviewing sexual-assault cases investigated by Stratford police to help the police service improve how they approach those investigations and support the people who come forward to tell their story.
For nearly five years, a team of local advocates has been reviewing sexual assaults investigated by Stratford police to help police improve how officers approach investigations and support the people who come forward to tell their stories.
Established in 2017 when a report to the local police services board revealed that nearly one in five sexual assaults reported to Stratford police had been classified as unfounded, closely mirroring a nationwide trend revealed by a Globe and Mail investigation, Stratford’s advocate case review team has conducted nine biannual reviews of sexual assault cases that concluded without any charges laid, first as part of a pilot program before the initiative became a permanent piece of the department’s investigative process in October 2020.
Based on an advocate case-review model pioneered by a Philadelphia police commissioner in 2000, the initiative involves a team comprising five trained reviewers – three from the Optimism Place Women’s Shelter and two from The Emily Murphy Centre. As part of an ongoing awareness campaign around domestic and intimate-partner violence, representatives from Stratford police and members of the case review team recently sat down with the Beacon Herald to shed light on how police and local advocates work together toward fixing a broken system.
“The police respond to a call for service that is sexual assault in nature and we conduct the investigation – interviews, arrests if any, charges and court processes,” Stratford police Chief Greg Skinner said. “If … there are no charges to be laid, that’s where it falls into the advocate review process to look at the entirety of the investigation and see if there’s anything that could have been done differently … that would have had a different outcome or would have allowed for a victim to come forward with better information that could have provided police with more reasonable, probable grounds to continue an investigation and potentially lay a charge.
“What we are looking to do is learn through every case we are involved in how we can do things better (and) how we can build relationships and trust with victims.”
In reviewing all sexual assault cases reported to Stratford police that do not result in charges, Optimism Place Women’s Shelter executive director and case review team member, Jasmine Clark, said she and her fellow advocates have been able to see the results of their work. Since 2017, she says there has been a downward trend in the number of sexual assault cases that are closed by Stratford police without charges being laid.
“I think that’s important because, unlike domestic violence, in sexual assault there’s no such thing as mandatory charging,” she said. “So really, the reliance is on those folks coming forward with evidence. It’s really important that investigation is conducted in such a way that supports the person who is ultimately sharing their story. Sometimes that’s the only evidence you have as a police officer.”
Recommendations from cases reviews that have since been adopted by Stratford police include providing more welcoming interview rooms for survivors, changing police interview styles to help survivors feel more comfortable, shifting away from a police focus on victim behavior, and bettering the working relationship between officers and local advocates.
“We’re watching those interviews and we’re able to go back to those police officers and say, ‘There’s a different way to do this. There’s a different way to ask these questions. There’s a way that’s more trauma informed. There’s a way to do this that may be more supportive to the victim and you may not see them shut down,’” Clark said. “Some of the things that we saw in those interviews, we were really able to take away and practically make some recommendations, and we saw changes over time.
“We saw detectives doing interviews differently. We saw them asking different questions. We saw a lot of fundamental change in combination with … training and trauma-informed work the police service committed to.”
Police have even begun moving away from using the term “unfounded” to classify sexual assault cases that didn’t result in charges because, to the general public, it was largely interpreted as meaning police did not believe a sexual assault had happened, regardless of whether that was true.
“Since then the language has changed, the scoring in the uniform crime reporting system has changed to better encapsulate what actually happened and not use this one catch-all phrase that caused some stigma in the community around sexual assault victims and whether they were being truthful ,” Skinner said.
While the feedback from the team has influenced police training and allowed officers to create a better environment for victims and improve the grounds on which a charge can be ugly, the relationship between police and the advocates goes both ways. Both Clark and Emily Murphy Center executive director Lisa Wilde, who also sits on the team, say they now better understand some of the investigative tools and strategies police use when speaking with victims.
Because they have an insider’s perspective of how sexual assaults are investigated and can see how Stratford police are taking what they’ve learned and incorporating it into their policies and procedures, Clark and Wilde say they feel more comfortable recommending survivors file a report with police if they’re at a point where they want to involve law enforcement.
“We can feel more confident saying to women, ‘This is what you can expect and here’s what you need to know. It’s really your decision whether you want to move forward,’” Clark said. “And lots of women don’t want to. It’s not, to them, the solution and the justice system is just not an option, but for some it really is.”
“And it’s allowed the police to know it’s OK if somebody doesn’t want to pursue charges,” Stratford police community resources officer Const. Darren Fischer added. “The ultimate goal is to get a person the support they need in that moment. It’s not all about laying a charge and getting a conviction in that moment, it’s about giving that individual a safe space where they’re comfortable telling their story.”
When one person comes forward to report a sexual assault and they feel supported through that process, others may feel empowered to do the same.
“This is a permanent part of the investigative chain with the Stratford Police Service. We’re not going anywhere,” Wilde said. “And whether or not it’s Jasmine and I on the team or it’s the next leaders, it’s going to be around. Victims are not alone in this process. There’s community supports as well as police supports and we’re working together.”
Fischer said it’s also critical for the public to know that Stratford police understand they “haven’t always followed the best practices.”
“We haven’t always put forth the best work possible,” he said. “We recognize that and we are striving to become better, to become more open, more accessible, more approachable. It’s through these community collaborations and through this ongoing education and awareness that we hope to accomplish those things.”