Sexual assaults reporting in Colorado Springs may not be higher after #MeToo movement

A big light is being shed on the #MeToo movement that’s sparked thousands of women coming forward across the country and telling their stories of sexual assault and harassment.

More recently it’s landed, former comedian, Bill Cosby in prison and some questioning U.S. Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh.

In 2014, the latest nationwide numbers say nearly 30,000 women have reported being victim to sexual assault or harassment.

Here in Colorado Springs, Sherrylyn Boyles works to decrease that number across El Paso and Teller County. She’s the executive director at TESSA, a resource officer that provides services to victims of domestic and sexual violence.

“We know that it’s a big problem here,” said Boyles.

The number of people reporting incidents like these isn’t necessarily going up, but Boyles said, “It’s hard to know whether we’ve had an increase in the number of reports but we do know that over the past decades since we’ve started studying the issue, is that the vast majority don’t report to anyone.”

Among the people who have come forward, there have been few who lied about what happened to them, making it harder for the real victims.

Colorado Springs Police Chief Pete Carey says that number is very low. “There’s a lot of reports made but the vast majority of them are legitimate sex crimes. It doesn’t happen that often,” Carey said.

Even though the number of reports isn’t necessarily increasing, it’s an incident that’s surely sticking around.