It is not very often the head of the Sea to Sky Mounties, Officer-In-Charge, Insp. Robert Dykstra, does a media blitz, but on Nov. 20, he was doing the rounds to try and combat increasing fear fuelled by social media posts.
His officers have been investigating claims of South Asian males luring, stalking, or even attempting to kidnap females in town.
These claims, though believed by the individuals reporting them, have been investigated and ruled to be unfounded.
The RCMP have told people this and put out news releases to that effect, and yet the rumours and fear continue to spread.
The situation is leading to vigilantism, which is deeply concerning, he says.
The Squamish Chief interviewed Dykstra about this issue.
What follows is a version of that conversation edited for length and clarity.
Q: What specifically are you concerned about?
A: What's concerning me right now is the false narratives and information that's going through the social media circles about girls being kidnapped or lured into being kidnapped by men of South Asian descent. This is being broadcast on social media. Then pictures of a particular male have been broadcast on social media, and then pictures of particular vehicles, and it continues to build and build and build such that it's kind of creating this furor of people not feeling safe. The problem is that the information is false.
I don't think it's false in the sense that people are making it up because they're trying to create something. It's not a malicious thing. I think they believe it, but it's untrue.
Q: So the claims have been investigated?
A: We've fully investigated all the complaints that have been received and they've been deemed to be unfounded. Unfounded is different from unsubstantiated: unsubstantiated is where there's just not enough evidence to prove that an offence took place. Unfounded is it didn't happen, and that's what I'm trying to get out right now. It is unfounded.
Q: Does it seem like racial profiling at this point? Is that what you are seeing?
A: I don't think people are racially profiling, per se. I think the information that was originally presented indicated that there was a person of South Asian descent, and now that has become people being afraid of people of that descent. It is causing tensions, for sure. As an example, one of my members was not on duty and was walking in the community; that member is a person of colour, and they could see that people were treating them differently because of that, and that's problematic because that's the kind of thing that false information leads to. It leads to fear. It leads to people behaving in ways which are not actually appropriate to what's happening in the community.
The man who was posted online, this person has been interviewed, and it's been proven that this person has nothing to do with anything. The vehicle that has an ace of spades is not related to that male or any other male of colour.
If people think the RCMP is not doing their job, fine, they can make a complaint. They can come to the detachment. They can do all these different things. If someone feels like we're not doing our job, I encourage them to do that because, you know, we're not perfect, and we always have things that we can do better and learn from. But in this particular instance, our members have done everything, and they follow up on all the complaints, and they're unfounded.
Q: Is there another example of what this social media buzz has led to?
A: There was a picture on a social media post, and it's a picture of our members arresting a male, who the post said was thought to be related to the luring.
The person was arrested for a property crime and is not South Asian.
It all leads to this perpetuation of the belief that there's something serious going on in the community that's a danger to people, and it's just not true. And then, and my concern is, this is going to lead to people in the community being affected negatively when they shouldn't be—because they haven't done anything wrong—and people are treating them differently, which is not something that I think the Squamish community is really about. Squamish is a very welcoming and open community—very friendly. Like in any town, there are always elements of crime, and that's what the police are for. But as a whole, the community is quite safe. So when people start to feel unsafe because they will be targeted through a false narrative, that is a problem.
Q: Is it becoming a sort of trial by social media, then? Instead of a system of facing one's accuser, being investigated, maybe going to court, etc.?
A: I don't think I would say this is a trial by social media. I honestly do believe that the people who are communicating on social media believe the information. I don't think that there's anybody maliciously spreading information and trying to say this person did something wrong, knowing that it's not true. It's just they have a false basis on which to have the belief about what has actually been going on.
Some information on social media is quite good, and it's a great communication tool. But the problem is that it's not sourced in the same way that your official sources of information on these kinds of things are. Police conduct investigations. We document our files. We have electronic file systems. We collect video surveillance, for example. We have all this information that we can then say to ourselves through investigation, this is true or not true, and then if it was a real criminal activity, it goes to court, and so on. In this case here, it's just people who have heard a story, and they believe it.
Q: I worry about giving the impression that this is about not believing women or people. We want to believe women when they say what happened to them. Right? But what I am hearing you say is that this situation is not that. Can you address this?
A: Absolutely. We have a policy that when someone comes and tells you something or when someone makes a complaint to the police, the first thing is to believe what they're telling you and to act on that. So, if someone makes a complaint that there was a kidnapping that took place or someone was attempted to be kidnapped, we believe in the first instance, and then we investigate it.
In a lot of cases, I find that it's not that something didn't happen, but then maybe there was a misunderstanding or misrepresentation. So, for example, if someone was at work and they're leaving their office and they see some males, and then a male kind of looks at them in a particular way, and they feel unsafe because of something that's happened in their past, or something that's happened recently in the community, that doesn't make that feeling or that experience any less valid. It's 100% valid. So the recommendation is to contact the police, let the officers do an investigation, and then we can tell you that, yes, this is something that is of concern, and we've addressed it, and we're dealing with it, or this is what we found out.
This situation with social media now, has been going around since June, and what we've done is we've fully investigated the complaints that have come to us, and we've notified the complainants that this is not accurate. This isn't true. This isn't happening, but it's continued to evolve on social media.
Q: So, people should call the police if they feel unsafe or have a concern, is what you are saying, basically?
A: Yes. You know, some people don't want to call the police for different reasons. Some don't call the police because they're afraid of the court stuff. I understand that completely; the justice system is complex, and it can be intimidating to many, but it's there for a reason, and it is very effective.
Some don't want to call the police because they don't trust the police. As an officer in charge, I require that my members and my employees act in a compassionate, professional way at all times, and the style of policing that I'd like to deliver is one that's basically compassionate policing. We are there to provide a service to the people of our community, which is to take care of them, to make them feel safe and to investigate crime. And to do that for them in a way that's meaningful and that they feel safe.
If there's an incident that happens in front of you, or you see something that looks criminal or suspicious, you can call us and let us investigate it. That is what we're paid to do.
Q: Anything else I didn't ask that you want to say?
A: It's really important to recognize that this is not me or the police coming out and telling the folks who are on social media that they're doing something wrong because that's not the case.
The community is really gathering around this issue and trying to make sure everybody's safe. And in a circumstance where something was actually going on, that kind of information being out there would not be a bad thing. The problem is that right now, the information that is being propagated is based on something that's just not true and that's not helpful.
