Police Deny Dispatcher’s Claim Of Rape Indifference

A senior Vancouver (Canada) police official retook the witness stand last Friday at a months-long commission hearing on a series of prostitute murders in the 1990s, and disputed previous testimony by a police dispatcher that officers were racist and sexist, and failed to properly investigate rape and missing women reports. Deputy chief Doug LePard said he listened to two telephone calls mentioned by former dispatcher Rae-Lyn Dicks and another civilian employee during their testimony last April, and that the calls were handled properly. The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry was formed to investigate why it took over 10 years to identify and arrest a suspect in the series of 25 murders. Dicks told the commission that police routinely failed to properly investigate certain crimes. “This was a pervasive culture, within the ranks of male VPD officers, of a demeaning attitude toward women, people of other races and toward people less fortunate,” she told the commission. But at last Friday’s hearing, LePard said he located the logging tapes of a call mentioned by Dicks in her testimony, and found factual differences in what Dicks claims was said during the call and how the case was handled. In fact, LePard testified, the suspect was identified and convicted of rape. Read about Dicks’ original testimony here, and about LePard’s dispute of Dicks’ account here. Also read the transcript (pdf) of Dicks’ testimony, and written testimony (pdf) from other communications center personnel disputing Dicks’ claims.