Prince George’s Crime Severity Index (CSI) climbed 6% higher in 2016 compared to 2015.
According to Stats Canada, the northern capital ranked 14th out of the 305 municipalities with populations of 10,000 people or more.
The Violent Crime Severity Index also rose 9% last year.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg
“The homicide rate increased by 5%,” says Rebecca Kong, Chief of the Policing Services Program. “We also saw an increase in the sexual violations against children and also in terms of violent crime one of the highest volume offenses is that assault level 1 also went up 6%.”
Violations involving fentanyl and prescription drugs also went up.
Provincially, BC’s CSI is the lowest among all the western provinces at 93.6. “Just as a comparison, when we look at Alberta your neighboring province it came in at 102.5, it’s on the lower-end in terms of the western provinces,” says Kong.
She says declines in two specific areas are mostly responsible for the province’s 1% year-over-year decrease.
“In terms of robbery, we saw a 20% decrease in the rate of robbery and in terms of break and enters we saw a decrease of 3%.”
BC recorded 87 homicides in 2016, down from 97 a year earlier.
Just over 1,650 cases of criminal harassment were reported by provincial police in 2016. That’s a decline of almost 18% from 2015 where almost 2,000 of those incidents were listed.
However, the RCMP reported 2,756 child pornography offenses in BC last year compared to just 1,608 in 2015.
Part of the increase is due to a project coordinated by the British Columbia Integrated Child Exploitation Unit.
The CSI in Canada is lower than both the province and Prince George at 71.
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