KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Great reporting by the Globe and Mail shows alarming discrepancies nation-wide in how police forces deal with sexual assaults. And Nova Scotia is no exception.
A 20-months effort by reporters reveal that police dismiss one of every five sexual assaults in Canada because they don’t believe a crime occurred.
That’s twice as high as the dismissal rate for physical assaults.
What is truly worrying are the discrepancies between the dismissal rates among various police forces that the Globe and Mail investigation reveals.
For instance, the average dismissal rate nationally over the last five years is 20%, but in Winnipeg it sits at a mere 2%, while in Saint John, New Brunswick, it is 51%.
The rate for all of Nova Scotia, at 25%, is higher than the national average.
The Globe and Mail also offers its readers the ability to query the data about any of the 870 police forces that responded to its nearly 250 Freedom of Information requests.
So I started plugging in some Nova Scotia locations, pretty randomly, and this is what I found.
Truro Police Service, 55%, 51 out of 96 allegations dismissed.
Amherst, 49%, 42 out of 86 allegations dismissed.
Bridgewater, 48%, 27 out of 56 allegations dismissed.
Lunenburg County, 41%, 83 out of 203 allegations dismissed
Kings County, 35%, 132 out of 375 allegations dismissed.
Shelburne municipal, 30%, 6 out of 20 allegations dismissed.
Town of Antigonish, 26%, 15 out of 58 allegations dismissed.
Guysborough County, 24%, 11 out of 45 allegations dismissed.
Antigonish County, 23%, 13 out of 56 allegations dismissed.
Cape Breton Regional Police, 18%, 77 out of 431 allegations dismissed.
Shelburne rural, 14% 4 out of 29 allegations dismissed.
Halifax Regional Police, 13%, 235 out of 1861 allegations dismissed.
Click here to do your own search.
The Globe and Mail investigation was conducted by Robyn Doolittle, Terra Ciolfe, Michael Pereira, Jeremy Agius, Stephanie Chambers, Rick Cash, Tu Thanh Ha and many others.
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