Halifax police to send certain closed sex assault cases to RCMP review committee
CBC
Halifax Regional Police will send certain sexual assault cases to an RCMP oversight committee to be examined, but an advocate for a different review model says she's disappointed and confused by the move.
On Wednesday, Halifax's board of police commissioners directed Halifax Regional Police (HRP) to take part in the Nova Scotia RCMP's sexual assault investigations review committee process for the next year.
The RCMP's committee is made up of civilian experts on health and sexual violence who review a selection of sexual assault cases that the Mounties have closed without laying charges. The committee can recommend whether cases should be reopened, and give feedback on how officers handled investigations.
Now, Halifax Regional Police will randomly select a few closed sex assault files, partially vet them, and share them with the RCMP's committee for review.
"I have full faith in our folks and our people that we are going to take what we can learn from this committee and help it to improve our best practice," said HRP Deputy Chief Andrew Matthews after the board meeting.
Matthews said it will be a simple transition because Halifax cases are all investigated by a sexual assault investigation team made up of both RCMP and HRP officers.
The board originally asked Halifax police to consider a different oversight model.
In June 2022, commissioners asked HRP to consider a model known as the violence against women advocate case review (VACR).
That review process also involves a panel of civilian experts on sexual violence, but it examines every sex assault file a police force has closed without charges. The VACR model is being used by about 30 police forces in five provinces across Canada, including Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.
It was endorsed by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in 2020 and has been included as best practice in the Canadian Framework for Collaborative Police Response on Sexual Violence.
Speaking to the police board Wednesday, HRP said they were told by municipal lawyers that the VACR model raises privacy concerns based on current Nova Scotia legislation.
While both models require civilian participants to sign confidentiality agreements, Matthews said he was told HRP could open itself up to problems if it shared files directly with a VACR panel. He did not elaborate.
Sunny Marriner, national co-ordinator with the VACR model based in Nova Scotia, said she was disappointed Halifax police never brought those privacy concerns to her.
"I was really surprised by that, actually. Privacy was the first issue that we dealt with when we looked at case reviews in Canada dating back as far as 2013," Marriner said in an interview Wednesday.
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