The Stanford rape story and the victim's response may have largely faded from national headlines, but the epidemic of sexual assaults is still a large part of the national dialogue. Locally, law enforcement agencies want to do something to help prevent the crime while helping its victims recover.
The Tampa Bay Area Chiefs of Police Association unveiled a new public awareness and training campaign Thursday called Consent Florida in an effort to ensure that sexual assault victims’ voices are heard while providing them with a supportive resource.
“It breaks our hearts to know that there are victims out there that are fearful, for whatever reason, of coming forward to the police,” Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan said Thursday at a news conference at TPepin's Hospitality Centre. “We're trying to keep our community safe. We want to ensure that anybody and everybody out there — male or female — knows that we are those safe people that you can come to.”
Consent Florida also aims to diminish disconcerting sexual assault statistics, which Bevan cited during the conference. These statistics show that one in six women in Florida have been or will be raped at some point in their lives, while barely six out of every 1,000 rapists will be prosecuted for their crimes.
Rape is widely underreported and has been for far too long, says Bevan: only 18 percent of forcible rapes in America are reported to law enforcement.
One key strategy of the campaign is to educate the public and school resource officers so they can, in turn, teach public school students and college students the definition of consent.
“Rape is not caused by too much alcohol. Rape is not caused by a revealing outfit,” said Bevan. “Rape is caused by rapists who are empowered by a culture that muddies the concept of consent, and uses shame and silence to fuel its punishing fire. Our clarion call is straightforward and forthright: Yes equals consent; No equals rape. It’s really just that simple.”
Consent Florida will also focus on providing training for all law enforcement officers so they can be sensitive to victims’ trauma when handling sexual assault investigations.
One program that has been implemented to test out the campaign’s effectiveness is underway in Clearwater.
The Clearwater Police Department received a grant from the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence to train officers and dispatchers how to best interact with assault victims, Chief Dan Slaughter said, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Through Consent Florida, law enforcement can ensure our community is safer and more secure, says Bevan.
The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay is one of many organizations combating sexual assault while helping victims. In Tampa, the nonprofit serves as a sanctuary for victims of the crime, where victims can feel safe in the wake of such a traumatic ordeal, and in total anonymity. But the volume of victims is high. Last year alone, the center provided forensic exams to more than 350 sexual assault victims.
Crisis Center officials applauded the Tampa Bay Area Chiefs of Police Association for launching Consent Florida in a statement released Thursday.
“We know there are many victims in our community who don’t seek help because of fear, shame, and ridicule,” said President and CEO Clara Reynolds. “Rape is never the victim’s fault. The Consent Florida campaign aims to provide information to law enforcement, schools and the general public to facilitate a cultural shift that will address a very preventable problem in our society.”
Bevan emphasized that sexual assault is a global issue, and that the Tampa Bay area and its police officers have to be at the forefront of positive change.
“We can simply lend our organization with our badges and our power to this topic that can give it the attention it needs so that would-be assailants and those victims know that if they come to us, they will have an ear,” said Bevan. “We will listen. We will understand.”
This article appears in Jul 7-14, 2016.