The ongoing controversy surrounding what are deemed “unfounded” sexual assault rates in Waterloo Region has taken a new twist.

Five members of the local sexual violence task force have penned an open letter to Police Chief Bryan Larkin, writing they’re troubled by how police have responded to a recent sexual harassment lawsuit.

Head of the Sexual Assault Support Centre, Sara Casselman, is one of the names on this letter. She tells 570NEWS why they feel police need to change their tone.

“Survivors are listening to police responses right now, and it has a really big impact on whether they feel safe to reach out to police,” she says. “The police’s lawyer very strongly denied the allegations … If there are survivors that are listening, how safe do they feel coming forward?”

In the letter, they say “unfounded” is a police reporting classification meaning a crime never occurred and was not attempted. They also point to statistics that say between 2010 and 2014, the national unfounded average for all police services was 19 per cent.

For Waterloo Regional Police, it was 27 per cent.

Casselman says improving police’s response to sexual assaults comes down to improving gender equality overall in policing.

“Because this is such a public issue, it was important that we didn’t just have a private conversation with the Chief, because survivors in our community need to see that we’re standing up and speaking out,” says Casselman. “If we’re not doing it, who’s doing it?”

The chair of the region’s police board says those who’ve signed the open letter haven’t done so in vain.

Tom Galloway acknowledges there are issues, and says they’ve been working on them for years.

“The board is expecting the Chief to come back with a go-forward plan, which includes likely a community task force … to help with workplace culture,” says Galloway.

That will be reported on at the board’s monthly meeting in February.

Galloway says he thinks the letter is positive: “To have this community group of people who are obviously quite involved in these kinds of matters come forward and offer there help is I think quite a positive thing.”

Casselman says they’re very committed to working collaboratively with police.

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Here is a copy of the letter:

The following letter is written by five members of the Sexual Violence Task Force (SVTF). The SVTF was created by Chief Larkin of the Waterloo Regional Police Service to address high “unfounded” rates for sexual assaults. (“Unfounded” is a police reporting classification meaning that a crime never occurred and was not attempted.) From 2010 to 2014, the Canadian national unfounded average for all police services was 19%, while Waterloo Region was significantly higher at 27% (Globe & Mail, February 3, 2017). The SVTF is conducting a historical review of unfounded cases, as well as creating a template for ongoing, community-based, advocate review of sexual assault cases in the Waterloo Region. 

Dear Chief Larkin,

We write to you with respect, kindness, and concern.

We are deeply troubled by how the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) has chosen to publicly respond to the recent class action lawsuit against the service.

When the lawyer retained by the WRPS went out of his way to challenge allegations outside of court (CBC News, January 11, 2018), we became very concerned about how his message, on behalf of the WRPS, would be understood by our community. Then, when you felt compelled to defend your staff in the media and cited progress on gender equity, without naming gender disparity as a very real issue within policing (CBC News, January 16, 2018), our worries increased. 

1. Messages such as these can have far-reaching, negative impacts on women and girls, particularly survivors of gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. As you know, survivors already struggle to come forward, to be believed, to find safe spaces for healing and justice.
2. These responses diminished the work of the Sexual Violence Task Force (SVTF), indicating a lack of understanding or acknowledgement, or maybe even a rejection, of a connection between gendered disparities/harms in policing and how effectively police respond to survivors of sexual violence.

We want to be clear: we believe survivors!

We want our community to understand that the important work of the SVTF cannot be separated from the work of creating gender equity/justice in policing, or the need for equitable, healthy relationships between all genders in Waterloo Region. Acknowledging gender bias is fundamental to improving police culture and creating better outcomes for survivors who choose to report to police.

Our hope would be to continue to move forward with the critically important work of the SVTF. Together with you, we are committed to improving police responses to survivors of sexual violence and to ending gender-based violence in all its forms.

We look forward to further dialogue.

Sincerely,

Lyndsey Butcher, Executive Director of SHORE Centre & Co-Chair of the Sex Workers Action Network

Sara Casselman, Executive Director, Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region

Elizabeth Clarke, CEO, YW Kitchener-Waterloo

Kim Decker, Executive Director, YWCA Cambridge

Judah Oudshoorn, Volunteer, Male Allies program of the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region