Too many internal errors led to Greater Sudbury Police Service's high rate of dismissed sexual assault cases, as revealed in a Globe & Mail article investigative series, Chief Paul Pedersen said this week.
Human error, internal missteps, a “coding error” and unconscious biases are among those internal errors, the chief said.
In filing reports of sexual assault, Statistics Canada provides certain options with which police can close cases, he said. Either they are solved, they are open and pending, or they are unfounded.
“When a situation arises where there isn't enough evidence to bring a case to court, police are faced with the situation how to classify that case at that point in time,” Pedersen said at a press conference on Sept. 20. “And, in this case, many of the cases were being designated as unfounded, when in actuality, they should have been designated as open and requires more information, if and when it does come forward.”
Greater Sudbury Police have termed it as a “coding error” that contributed to 33 per cent of nearly 400 dismissed sexual assault cases being classified as "unfounded." He said it also boiled down to a flaw in internal checks and balances in closing those cases.
Upon review of cases marked "unfounded," the service found the 33-per-cent rate dropped to five per cent.
Watch the video for the chief's full explanation.
