Delay in police-issued news releases about sexual assault incidents on campus, York president says
Melissa Sundardas
News Editor
President and Vice-Chancellor of York University, Mamdouh Shoukri, says he’s “frustrated” with the communication between the university and Toronto Police Services that has been occurring when sexual assaults are reported on campus.
At both a town hall meeting on September 25, and a Senate meeting on September 27, Shoukri told those in attendance there needs to be better communication on the Toronto police’s end when York reports an incident, such as a sexual assault.
Shoukri told attendees that Toronto police would become aware of an incident at York, but publish a news release about the incident days later. He mentioned that on one occasion, police mixed up the dates of when a sexual assault occurred, which created the impression that more sexual assaults had occurred at York than was actually the case.
Generally, a security bulletin is issued by York administration to communicate with students, faculty, and staff as soon information about an incident is confirmed, explains Joanne Rider of York media.
Constable Wendy Drummond of the Toronto Police Services explains that if an incident is reported to York security, security then calls the main Toronto police line, following which a police officer goes to the security office to obtain what information they have to create a report.
The speed with which a news release is published depends on the situation, Drummond says.
“There’s nothing that says every call requires a news release. There’s a criteria, and it’s at the discretion of the officer if one is issued or not,” says Drummond. “News releases are done when we have sufficient information to provide, and it’s done after an initial investigation.”
The police provide York with a news release at the same time that it is distributed publicly, but Rider says there have been instances where York did not receive a copy of releases regarding campus occurrences even after they were made public.
“We were not aware that [police] were planning on issuing [a news release], so it is a miscommunication,” says Rider.
Rider says in the case of the string of sexual assaults reported on campus in early July, the police had reported that incidents
occurred on both Thursday, July 5, and Friday, July 6, when in fact, they had all occurred on Thursday.
“The police did issue, after several hours, a correction, but during that time there was a misperception that the assaults had occurred over two days, which was inaccurate,” says Rider.
Drummond says from time to time, there are errors in news releases, but corrections are made as soon as Toronto police are made aware of the errors.
In cases where police have issued a news release days after York has already sent out a security bulletin, the media may believe there are more incidents than actually occurred, Rider explains.
When someone reports an incident to York security, security may issue a bulletin immediately, but there’s a lapse in time between when an officer speaks with witnesses and the victim and when a news release is put out for the public, Drummond says.
“The objective behind the release is to go out in a timely manner and to be relevant to the investigation, but you also have to take into account there is an initial investigation that has to occur, and there’s information that we have to obtain and be confident about, and that may take time,” she explains.
On the whole, Rider says York has an effective working relationship with the Toronto police.
“We have ongoing meetings with the Toronto Police, and we do work with them to make sure that our respective processes are as effective as possible, and we encourage an open dialogue with them to make sure that the security needs of the York community are addressed.”
