London police to change the way it investigates sexual assault cases

The London Police Service will change the way it investigates and codes sexual assault cases, Chief John Pare announced Thursday.

• Police chief responds to criticism of internal review of sex assualt cases

Police conducted an internal review of 1030 cases between 2010 and 2016 there were originally coded as unfounded. That represented 44 per cent of all sexual assault complaints a high number compared to other jurisdictions.

Unfounded meansofficers believed no crime was attempted or occurred.

After the review of the coding and the introduction of new categories, the number of the unfounded cases dropped dramatically to 143 cases.

Police determined the rest of the cases fell into the following categories:

• A complainant withdrew from process or refused to participate
• There was no reasonable ground to move forward
• A third-party reported the incident
• The incident was incorrectly coded as unfounded
• False complainant
• Other

Police to adopt new investigation strategy

Pare told the London Police Commission on Thursday thatthe service willadoptavictim-centred approach when itinvestigatesallegations.

"One of the biggest fears for victims is not being believed and I think that's where this whole process and the improvement that we're trying to put into police (in order) to make the victims feel supported," he said.

"We need to be mindful of the perception that we lead with the victims."

Police appointed an advisory committee comprised of community services and advocates to develop a community-based case review process.

A part of the review will include an external investigation into random unfounded and founded cases in order to ensure cases are property assessed by police.