When the offender is a police officer, sexual assault is harder to report, advocates say
Since 2017, SIU has launched 18 sexual assault investigations into Waterloo regional police officers
For people who say they've been sexually assaulted by police, the process of reporting the incident carries an added layer of difficulty, according to advocates.
According to data obtained from Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, Waterloo Regional Police Service have had the highest number of sexual assault investigations into their officers compared with six other Ontario police services serving a similar population size since 2017.
Since 2017, WRPS had a total of 18 complaints of sexual assault investigated by the SIU — other, similar sized, jurisdictions had between one and six.
Jennifer Davies is the manager of clinical programs and services with Guelph Wellington Women in Crisis.
She says she has supported people who identified their perpetrators as members of law enforcement.
Davies said while she can't provide a number or rate, she says it's not a rarity.
"I wish I can say that it was a rarity," she said.
"There's an automatic assumption that the person who is in a police car is a good person because of the profession that they do. It's innate. You believe that the police is there to help you ... but let's not forget they're people," she said, adding people are flawed, regardless of their occupation.
She said sexual assault can happen to anyone and be perpetrated by people working in all industries.
"There can be a misuse of power, which is at the root of violence — it's the exertion of power and control over another," she said.
Difficult to report
Davies said reporting in general is "an arduous, difficult, painstaking, humiliating, traumatizing process for people who have been victimized by sexual assault."
She says when the alleged perpetrator is a member of law enforcement, that adds an extra barrier.
"The idea of actually being brave enough to say, 'I have to go to the police ... to say that one of your own did this to me,' — that's very very difficult decision and choice to make," she said.
Sara Casselman, executive director of the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region, agrees with Davies.
"Obviously if the person who's been assaulted has been assaulted by someone in a position of authority, particularly the police, they would feel far less likely able to report," she said.
'Bug at the bottom of someone's shoe'
"We've had women who've said, 'I'm not sure which was more traumatizing, the assault or the investigation or court case,'" Davies said.
Tahirih McDonnell says she reported her incident of sexual abuse — which was not perpetrated by a police officer — to the Stratford Police Service in 2011.
"The reporting and being treated so poorly, the re-victimization, the trauma," said McDonell. "The process of trying to get justice was just horrendous."
McDonnell said she had to re-tell her story multiple times to different officers.
"I felt worse than the bug at the bottom of someone's shoe," she said.
Process murky
Davies said allowing an advocate to sit with the survivor and having police explain the investigation process that's about to take place is helpful.
"There's a very comforting feeling of at least, 'I know what I'm walking into,' as opposed to, 'I have no idea what they're going to do with my information,'" she said.
"And having that reality of, 'We may go forward. We may not.'"
For victims who wish to report, McDonell recommends that they bring a lawyer with them when they're first reporting the incident.
"I would tell them that it's not easy. It's a difficult process," she said. "Looking back on my experience, I wish I would've had a lawyer with me, I think I would've been perhaps treated better."
Investigations improved
Lawrence Greenspon, a lawyer from Ottawa who works with families of victims who have reported their case to the SIU, says the investigation process has improved over the years.
The Ontario SIU is a civilian law enforcement agency that investigates incidents involving police officers where there has been death, serious injury or allegation of sexual assault.
"Years ago, we couldn't get anything in way of information from the SIU — that's changed, and it's gotten a lot better," Greenspon said.
"There's been more involvement of the victim's families ... the SIU process is more open to providing information to the victim's families [now]."
McDonell said police can help by approaching victims with kindness and sensitivity.
"They don't understand that when a survivor is telling their story. It's not going to be neat and tied up with a bow. It's going to be messy, it may be all over the place," McDonell said.
"There definitely needs to be respect — at a minimum, kindness, sensitivity, knowledge," McDonell said.
You can read CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's coverage of the SIU's sexual assault investigations involving Waterloo Regional Police Service officers here: