During the Victoria Day long weekend, Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Police Department officers noted a sober and clean-cut young man leading an extremely intoxicated woman to a car.
They spoke to the man who told them he and the woman grew up together and tried to move the officers along, according to Sgt. Matt Clarke of the VPDs sex crimes unit.
Police pulled the woman aside. The 20-year-old said she had never met the guy before, didnt have any money and felt uncomfortable.
The Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Police Department and other agencies hope to reduce sexual assaults on women with the Dont Be That Guy campaign, announced July 8 at the Forum Public House on Granville Street.
The VPD doesnt want the number of sexual assaults to increase this summer as it did last year.
Reported sexual assaults in the city rose about 10 per cent from 2009 to 2010, with 617 sexual assaults reported to police.
We need to recognize that only about 10 per cent of sexual assaults are actually reported to the police, said Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of Battered Womens Support Services, who spoke at the press conference, as did representatives of other groups.
Organizations like Women against Violence Against Women, B.C. Womens Sexual Assault Service and Battered Womens Support Services, were seeing numbers much larger than that, that dont come to the attention of the criminal justice system, that arent reported to law enforcement.
Dont Be That Guy includes posters in mens bathrooms in bars, training for frontline bar staff and police officers in entertainment districts focusing their attention on predatory males this summer.
One poster depicts a stylish young woman passed out on a couch.
Just because she isnt saying no doesnt mean she is saying yes, its caption reads. Its a very simple message to young men and the images are important because they make visible what we all know happens in private, MacDougall said.
The Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton Committee, which included police and organizations serving women, developed the posters that aim to shift accountability to potential offenders.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»police developed training with BarWatch and taught more than 80 security and bar staff how to more easily identify women who are temporarily more vulnerable to sexual violence. Bar staff have been given a cellphone number to call a police supervisor on the street so officers can intervene at key times to make sure the women get home safely.
Clarke noted the consumption of drugs and alcohol by victims was voluntary in the vast majority of sexual assault cases reported to police. He also noted that police have seen recent success in having hair samples tested to detect the ingestion of date rape drugs.
Any form of sexual violence is a devastating experience with the potential for long-term effects on the victims, Clarke said. We have a great responsibility to speak plainly about this issue and take all possible measures to reduce sexual assaults.
Twitter: @Cheryl_Rossi
