Crime Severity index shows slight uptick for Prince Rupert

Prince Rupert Mounties had a busy 2020 as the latest
results from Statistics Canada indicate

Statistics Canada released their annual snapshot of crime across the nation in late July and when it comes to the Northwest, Prince Rupert was among a few communities to see an increase in the annual Crime Severity Index findings, though for the North Coast it's not much more than an incremental shift upwards. 

The annual review of Crime from Stats Canada offers up an indication that the members of the Prince Rupert Detachment of the RCMP remain among the busiest in the Northwest from the 2020 data collection.

The report from the nation's Statistic gathering resource uses data which is drawn from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, a census of all crime known to police services. The report observes that the Police-reported crime statistics conform to a nationally approved set of common crime categories and definitions.

In the data released in late July Prince Rupert City was assessed an index of 188.06 a jump of just over  two points from 2019; making for an increase of but 1.1 percent from the year previous.

The  findings include the numbers for the Violent Crime Severity Index which saw Prince Rupert assessed a mark of 288.90, which is an 18.68 percent increase from 2019's data.

Non Violent crimes saw a decline from the year before, with the City rating a 151.34 on the Index, which also makes for an 8.25 decrease  from the results received in 2019.

Data for crimes involving youth are not included in the data release.

The Prince Rupert data review can be examined here, you can expand the compilation to compare from as far back as 1998, though the data is somewhat skewed owing to a change in the way that data was collected a few years ago.

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For Prince Rupert there were  2,758 incidents of all type recorded in 2020, a decline from  the 3,076 recorded in 2019. Making for an overall drop in the rate of 10.62 percent. 

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The takeaway fro the Prince Rupert Rural statistical review, which includes the range of communities in near proximity to the city, is that of a decrease from the year before. With a rating of 171.60 on the Crime Severity index, a decrease of 38.02 percent from the 2019 review.

The data release for policing outside of the urban area of Prince Rupert can be reviewed here.  

Across the Northwest the results were quite varied for the three largest communities east of Prince Rupert.

Terrace continues to top the regional listings with a Crime Severity Index for 2019 of 145.43 a 31 percent decrease in the findings from a year ago. (see full chart here)  

Smithers  was assessed a ranking of 192.15 on the Crime Severity Index for 2019 an increase of 15.29 percent.  (see full chart here)

Kitimat saw just a slight increase for their review for the year, with a Crime Severity Index of 107.14 marking just an 8.22 percent increase from the previous findings. (see full chart here) 

The Stats Canada documentation includes reviews of all the rural areas surrounding the major  communities of the Northwest as well as for Haida Gwaii.

You can explore the statistics for the region from the searchable tables here.  

An overview of the findings and trends for across Canada is available here.

Many communities make use of the data to form their policing strategies, a topic explored by City Councils in the Northwest through regular updates from their respective detachments.

The last time that Prince Rupert City Council had a member of the local detachment in to discuss themes of law enforcement in the community was at the end of 2019. 

An overview from Council that for the most part declared that Prince Rupert  remained a safe city. 

At that time, it was noted that with Prince Rupert having a small population, that one or two increases in some categories, could spike the overall statistics for the city.

You can get a glimpse of some of the work that makes up the daily efforts for the members of the Northwest detachments through our Emergency Responders Archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.