The Edmonton Police Service is apologizing for a "racist" photo it released in connection to an unsolved sexual assault..The photo was developed from a profile garnered through special DNA testing and it showed the suspected rapist was black.."I am responsible for overseeing our sexual assault section — it was my team that put out a release two days ago about the unsolved sexual assault of a young woman in 2019," Chief Operating Officer for the Community Safety and Well-being Bureau of the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) Enyinnah Okere said..According to the EPS, the case was a "horrific sexual assault," that nearly caused the death of the young woman who was left unconscious and almost fully unclothed on a minus 27-degree morning in March.."It is the type of case from which a victim may never fully recover, made worse by the fact that after two years, she has not received justice," Okere said..According to EPS, because of the violent nature of the assault, the fact the victim lost consciousness, and that the suspect was wearing bulky winter clothes and a face mask, meant that EPS had very little to work with.."We had no witnesses, no tips, no CCTV, and, after two years, no leads," Okere said.."I have nothing but respect for my team for being willing to try every conceivable tactic to bring this case to a satisfactory conclusion and the victim deserves nothing less. I want to thank our people who do everything they can to pursue this work with rigor. They are relentless and I will not ask them to be anything less.".For the first time in its history, the EPS used DNA phenotyping in the hopes of identifying a suspect in the 2019 sexual assault..DNA phenotyping is the process of assessing physical appearance and ancestry from unidentified DNA evidence. Law enforcement agencies use the company’s Snapshot ® DNA Phenotyping Service to narrow suspect lists and generate leads in criminal investigations..Using DNA evidence from the investigation, the EPS were given trait predictions for the associated person of interest (POI)..Individual predictions were made for the subject’s ancestry, eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling, and face shape..By combining these attributes of appearance, a "Snapshot" composite was produced depicting what the POI may have looked like at 25-years-old..A picture of a 25-year-old black man was released on Tuesday by the EPS based on DNA phenotyping.."We were not and are not oblivious to the legitimate questions raised about the suitability of this type of technology. The potential that a visual profile can provide far too broad a characterization from within a racialized community and in this case, Edmonton's black community, was not something I adequately considered," Okere said.."There is an important need to balance the potential investigative value of a practice with the all too real risks and unintended consequences to marginalized communities.".According to the EPS, in the release police did try to qualify the benefits and limits of the technique that was used to determine the suspect.."We felt we were clear on its limit. We indicated we saw it as a last resort. And we thank the media who attended our briefing for producing careful and balanced stories that similarly noted the intent of this work and the very fair criticisms that need to be considered," Okere said.."Any time we use a new technology, especially one that does raise concerns about profiling of a marginalized group, we cannot be careful enough in how we validate these efforts and fully, transparently consider the risks.".The EPS confirmed they heard "legitimate external criticism" and have done their "own gut checks internally" to determine whether they got the balance right.."As a leader, I don't think I did. While the tension I felt over this was very real, I prioritized the investigation, which in this case involved the pursuit of justice for the victim, herself a member of a racialized community, over the potential harm to the black community. This was not an acceptable trade-off and I apologize for this.".EPS said it removed the visuals provided with the release from its website and will remove their social media images altogether..EPS will be reviewing its internal processes to better ensure the appropriate, robust, and stress-tested tools are in place to better inform EPS decisions on such matters going forward."We will continue to prioritize and explore every conceivable and appropriate means to find justice for the victim in this case. She deserves our continued efforts and focus, and we will not give up on our efforts for her," Okere said.
