Why didn't London police lay charges in 43% of reported sexual assaults last year?
The board that oversees the police has asked why 254 cases did not result in charges
The vast majority of sexual assaults continue to go unreported to city police, and nearly half of those that do get looked at by an officer don't result in charges, new numbers suggest.
In 2023, 587 sexual assaults were reported to the London Police Service. Among them 254 — 43 per cent — were resolved with no charges laid, a report that went to the police oversight body earlier this week, said.
"587 sexual assaults seems like a lot, but we also know that sexual assault goes vastly unreported. It translates directly to the work that we're doing on the ground in that nothing is getting better. Sexual assault is not getting better," said Jennifer Dunn, the executive director of the London Abused Women's Centre.
"If anything, you would almost hope there would be more reports, more charges, more women coming forward — not because it's getting worse, but because more women feel comfortable enough to come forward."
Earlier this week, CBC News requested a breakdown of why charges were not laid in those 254 cases and was told to file a freedom of information request.
Later in the week, at a meeting of the board that oversees London police, member Megan Walker requested those same numbers, saying that 43 per cent of cases did not result in charges raises questions.
"It's so difficult for a woman to come forward. How is it that so many didn't [lead to charges]? I'm curious why there were no charges. What happened?" Walker, who used to head the London Abused Women's Centre, asked the board.
Deputy Chief Paul Bastien told the board he will bring a breakdown of those numbers at a later date.
Only 6% of sexual assaults reported
Statistics Canada estimates only six per cent of sexual assault cases are reported to police.
If that estimate is accurate, it would mean there would have been 9,783 sexual assaults in London last year.
The report comes on the heels of a public apology from Chief Thai Truong to one woman who reported a gang sexual assault in 2018 by members of the World Junior Hockey team.
Charges were not laid against those men, four who now play in the NHL, until earlier this month.
In 2017, a 20-month investigation by the Globe and Mail found that London police deem one in three sexual assault cases as "unfounded." The term is no longer used, but the investigation changed how London police and many other departments across Canada, conduct sexual assault investigations. They now focus on a victim-centred approach.
The Violence Against Women Advocate Case Review Program allows advocacy groups that focus on gender-based violence to go through many of the sexual assault reports that do not lead to charges, to see if anything could have been done differently.
"The feedback I'm getting from the person in our office who actually does the reviewing is that these cases are actually really well done in terms of how the police handle them," Dunn said. "Some of them, there is room for improvement, but at a certain point we have to trust that whether there are charges or no charges, the police did their job, and it's what should have happened."
There have been no recommendations since 2019 made by the group that reviews the cases that don't lead to charges, according to numbers presented by London police.
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