Rey Reynolds of the Vancouver Police Department has spoken out forcefully against gender bias that favors either women or men in intimate partner violence cases. During his July 26 interview with Washington Initiative for Boys and Men, Officer Reynolds explained that law enforcement must take a neutral approach. Below is the video and an edited transcript of Rey’s words. All opinions expressed are Rey’s own. He is not speaking for the Vancouver Police Department or the City of Vancouver.
We note that studies have found women initiate domestic violence against male partners as often as men initiate violence against their female partners (more info).
Above is an 11-minute video of Rey Reynolds. Below is an edited partial transcript of Rey’s words.
Domestic violence laws are extremely serious. Not only can you can lose your freedom (by going to jail), you can also lose your right to keep and bear firearms, you can lose your right to see your children, you can lose your home… All of these things are extremely serious, and we simply can’t go into an investigation with gender bias, believing whatever she says and disbelieving what he says.
Office Rey Reynolds, Vancouver Police Department
Teaser: Biased thinking is not appropriate
Officer Rey Reynolds: I would hope that officers don’t go into investigations thinking that just because a female says something happened, you have to believe her. I don’t agree with that kind of thinking. That’s biased thinking. You can’t go into an investigation and in your mind you already believe that what she’s telling you is the absolute truth. You need to go in neutral and let the facts lead you to where the perpetrator is.
Introduction: Male victims of domestic violence
WIBM: For those who want to see better equality for men, one of the issues they focus on is bias in the criminal justice system. An example they give is studies have shown that for the same crime and under all the same conditions, a male convict will be sentenced to longer in prison than a female convict.
Another example has to do with domestic violence. A lot of men attest that in their experience, police showed up assuming that they were the perpetrator, even on occasions where actually they were trying to defend themselves and the woman in their life was the aggressor. I imagine you have some experience with male victims of intimate partner violence. Can you share about that?
Officer Rey Reynolds: Oh absolutely. I’ve gone to scenes where the woman has called the police and she says that her husband assaulted her. She says, ‘See, look at the marks on my arms, on my face. He did that.’
The husband is sitting off to the side. I turn toward him and I’m thinking, ‘You woman beater. You wife beater. Shame on you!’ Then I hear the rest of the story, and I check out the facts, and slowly but surely the pendulum swings back toward the real suspect, and it’s the woman. So we find out that she was lying about what she said. That has happened on multiple occasions. She was the primary aggressor, and we were able to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt, and then I arrested her and took her to jail.
WIBM: You were able to prove that? So there was some evidence?
Office Rey Reynolds: Absolutely. And see, I want to caution all you new police officers that you don’t go into a situation believing you already know what happened. You have to look at the entire thing – the totality of the circumstances – and then look for the facts, and follow the facts to wherever they lead. You can’t go in there with the belief that ‘Well, she has all these bruises on her. Obviously he did it, and he needs to go to jail.’
That kind of bias in policing, if that does exist…it needs to be…well, I know it does exist in some cases, because I’ve heard many men complain, ‘Hey, I didn’t even get a chance. She had a mark on her arm. She said I did something. They believed her, and they took me to jail.’
WIBM: You’ve heard that from men, personally?
Check out another video from our interview with Rey Reynolds: Do we need women in policing? Officer Rey Reynolds explains [Video]
‘Mommy punched daddy in the head’
Officer Rey Reynolds: Yes, I have heard that. But again, having heard that, I go into situations with my eyes open. I want to see the facts. I want to hear her statement. I want to hear his statement. And I want to hear any witnesses’ statements. Some of your best witnesses are children. They’ll tell you the truth. We ask, ‘What happened?’ The child responds, ‘Mommy punched daddy in the head.’ Oh… Simple as that. And the facts always lead you to the perpetrator. Whether it’s a female perpetrator or a male perpetrator – it doesn’t matter!
You can lose your freedom, your kids, your house
Domestic violence laws are extremely serious. Besides the fact that you can lose your freedom, you can lose your right to keep and bear firearms, you can lose your right to see your children, you can lose your home. All of these things are extremely serious, and we simply can’t go into an investigation and say ‘Well, she said that you did this, and there’s some evidence that it’s true, so you have to go.’ It’s not that simple. My domestic violence reports are typically five pages long. They’re really, really long. What she said, what he said, and then I lay out all of the facts.
I would hope that officers don’t go into investigations thinking that just because a female says something happened, you have to believe her. I don’t agree with that kind of thinking. That’s biased thinking. You can’t go into an investigation and in your mind you already believe that what she’s telling you is the absolute truth.
WIBM: Studies have suggested that in maybe something like a third of relationships in which there’s physical violence, the violence goes both directions. In those situations, there’s not really one innocent party and one guilty party. Both people have broken our laws that criminalize punching, hitting, scratching, etc.
Officer Rey Reynolds: In the olden days…[Find out the rest of the content of this video by clicking here and skipping ahead to to 5 minutes 15 seconds.]
Check out this related piece: Why it’s tough fighting for fairness for men in Washington: Interview with Lisa Scott, family law attorney [Video]