Montreal police add measure to review unfounded sex assault claims
The Montreal police department has revised its treatment of sexual assault claims since February, according to a statement in response to concern over claims deemed unfounded.
The police have added a measure by which, when a claim is deemed unfounded, a second officer who did not participate in the investigation must review the file.
To date, all files that have been reviewed in this way have led to the decision standing as is; no files have been reopened, according to police.
The Montreal police emphasized that it takes all claims seriously, adding that as of 2010, members of the Crime Victims Assistance Centre work with police to provide follow-up and support for victims. Last month, the department opened a sexual-assault hotline in the wake of allegations against a number of high-profile Quebec men.
In the hotline’s first week, Montreal police received 320 calls. Of those, 69 resulted in the opening of sexual-assault files and eight of the calls were about “sexual assault-related information that was not related to criminal offences,” police said.
