The overall severity of crime in Delta was down last year as compared to 2019.
On July 27, Statistics Canada released the Crime Severity Index (CSI) for all jurisdictions throughout Canada. Delta’s 2020 CSI rate was 57.04, down by 12 per cent in comparison to 2019.
The CSI is a national measure of police-reported crime. Unlike the traditional crime rate, which only counts the number of crimes in a jurisdiction, the CSI is a comprehensive measure that also takes into account the seriousness of crime — a higher score indicates a greater number and/or greater severity of crimes, and a low CSI rate generally indicates that a community is relatively safe. Index scores are compared to a baseline of 100, which is calculated using historical data.
Delta had the third lowest score among Greater Vancouver/Lower Mainland-area municipal police jurisdictions, and seventh lowest province-wide. Delta’s CSI was well below both the provincial average (95.71) and the national average (73.44).
Overall, Canada’s average CSI score decreased by eight per cent from 2019 to 2020, and while the national decrease is in part attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated stay-at-home orders, this was not true across the board as some municipalities saw their CSI’s increase.
Furthermore, certain crime types saw an increase nationally, including homicides, opioid-related offences, hate crimes and child pornography.
A press release issued by the Delta Police Department Wednesday morning notes achieving a CSI lower than the previous year is one of the key performance indicators for the success of the DPD’s Community Safety Plan.
“While the pandemic may have played a role in the crime rate nationally, [I am] certain that locally in Delta, it’s the hard work of the men and women on the incredibly dedicated, committed and passionate team at the DPD who contributed to Delta’s CSI being nearly 40 per cent less than the provincial average, in collaboration with our local community,” Chief Constable Neil Dubord said in the release.
“Our members work 24-7 to ensure that Delta remains one of the safest cities to live, visit and work in B.C. While our calls for service in 2019 and 2020 remained similar, the team’s ongoing efforts contributed to the CSI decrease in 2020.”
SEE ALSO: Collisions in Delta up significantly in second quarter of 2021 (July 16, 2021)
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