West Shore RCMP will be better equipped to deal with sexual offences with the creation of their new Special Victims Unit (SVU).
The new SVU is made up of one corporal and two constables who are overseen by the Serious Crimes Staff Sergeant.
According to the West Shore RCMP, they investigated 106 cases of crimes that were sexual in nature in 2021. This includes sexual assaults, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, child abuse/luring, voyeurism and more.
“We determined there was a need for a specialized unit to handle some of these investigations as they are very complex in nature,” said John Ferguson, Staff Sergeant in charge of West Shore RCMP Serious Crimes.
“Often, sexual offence investigations require a significant amount of time, making it difficult for Frontline officers to investigate while also responding to other calls for service.”
Police say the new SVU will not change how sexual offences are reported to police. Once the report is taken by police in the West Shore RCMP, it will be passed to the SVU who will follow up and investigate using their unique expertise if it is required.
The officers of the SVU will receive special training to deal with these specialized investigations, including training to interview children, write search warrants and monitor victims who are at risk of being re-victimized.
West Shore RCMP says part of the process in the creation of this new unit is to have support provided from other agencies. This is to give the frontline officers the best trauma-informed training for the cases they will be dealing with.
Police say the 106 sexual offences investigated in 2021 doesn’t include the 22 cases of child pornography that were handled by the Serious Crimes Unit.
To date in 2022, there have been 41 cases involving child pornography, according to West Shore RCMP.
Police anticipate this number growing in the coming years.
“Similar to sexual offence investigations, reports of Child Pornography are very heavy on police resources with officers having to obtain search warrants, conduct surveillance, as well as engage Tech Crimes Specialists to examine digital data,” said Staff Sergeant Ferguson.
“In November 2022, an 18-month jail sentence was handed down to a West Shore man who was convicted of being in Possession of Child Pornography. This was a Serious Crimes Unit investigation that took 2.5 years to complete.”
Police say they are committed to working hard to keep the community they serve safe and this new SVU will aid in that goal.
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