The 100 Mile House RCMP detachment is doing a great job compared to other detachments in the Cariboo, B.C. and Canada, according to recent data released by Statistics Canada.
From 2016 to 2017 the Crime Severity index dropped 25 per cent.
RCMP Sgt. Don McLean says their definitions differ from those from Statistics Canada
“My interpretation of the crime severity index is that these are more ‘serious’ types of crimes which I would associate as being crimes against persons. These have gone down over the past year. There are numerous socio-economic reasons for this but I would put some weight on that there were two homicides in 2016 and none in 2017.”
Breaking it down further, the violent crime severity index dropped 50 per cent in that same period (although 2016 was an unusually high year) and non-violent crime index dropped five per cent.
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At the same time, the violent weighted clearance rate went up by 13 per cent. However, the overall weighted clearance rate dropped 22 per cent and the non-violent weighted clearance rate dropped 35 per cent.
“Most violent crimes are cleared by charge because a suspect is identified quickly or is known to the victim. ‘Non-violent Clearance rates,’ in my interpretation, would be similar to property crimes. A 55 per cent clearance rate for property crimes, I feel, is still quite good given the amount of travelling criminals who pass through our Detachment area,” says McLean.
In all, there were 767 incidents in 2016, compared to 638 in 2017, of which 320 were cleared (171 by charge and 149 otherwise). The total number of people charged was 169, 152 of whom were adults and 17 of whom were youths.
“I don’t know all the reasons why 100 Mile House is rated at a lower Crime Severity Index than our surrounding communities but it is apparent that as the communities are bigger, the problems associated to those communities are bigger as well.”
He says that it is part of his responsibility to make sure investigations are properly coded to ensure an accurate reflection to Statistics Canada.
Check out these graphs to see how that stacks up against other cities in the Cariboo, B.C. and Canada as a whole.
