The number of crimes in Agassiz and their severity have gone up in 2018, now the highest they’ve been in the last four years.
In 2018, rural Agassiz saw 766 violations, including violent crime, property crime, traffic violations and drug charges. This is up 27 per cent from 2017, and more than 50 per cent from 2014. The District of Kent also saw a rise in crime rates, going up just over 2 per cent to 473 incidents in 2018 after two years of decreases.
The majority of Agassiz’s violations are property crimes, which saw a 41 per cent increase from 2017. The most common of these are thefts under $5,000 (313 instances in 2018 for both rural Agassiz and Kent) and break-and-enters (138 instances between the two).
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Break-and-enters increased substantially from 2017, with the total number more than doubling from 2017. Other increases were in vehicle thefts (up 94 per cent from 2017) and thefts under $5,000 (up 40 per cent).
For violent crime, rural Agassiz’s total violations are typically low, although there were some increases in the less serious forms of assault (37 instances to 51 in 2018) and sexual assault (five instances to six). Kent actually saw decreases in the least serious form of assault (down 58 per cent from 29 to 12), but increases in assault causing bodily harm (up from 15 to 25) and increases in the least serious form of sexual assault (three insteances to five).
The number of crimes where people were sharing indecent and harassing communications, more commonly known as “revenge porn,” was also up in rural Agassiz, going from eight instances to 13 in 2018, although it was down in Kent.
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The total number of sexual violations towards children — which includes sexual exploitation, invitation to sexual touching and luring a child via a computer — has gone down significantly. Although there were 16 instances in 2017 between both rural Agassiz and Kent, 2018 saw just one in rural Agassiz and no instances in Kent.
(Sexual violations towards children does not include child pornography.)
Both the total number of violations and the severity of those violations have gone up in Agassiz over the past year. The crime severity index, which measures the seriousness of a community’s crimes, gave rural Agassiz a rate of 189.02, 22 per cent higher than 2017 and 116 per cent higher than the provincial average of 87.67. Kent had a rate of 79.33, lower than the provincial average but 28 per cent higher than 2017.
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Although the total amount of crime in Agassiz is significantly lower than the number of incidents in the City of Chilliwack and its surrounding areas, rural Agassiz has a higher crime rate. (This does not hold true for the District of Kent’s crime rate, which was the lowest of all surrounding areas.)
In the city of Chilliwack, there is around 12 criminal code violations for every 100 people. In rural Chilliwack, that rate goes up to just under 16 violations for every 100 people. Rural Agassiz sees just over 17 violations for every 100 people — higher than both Chilliwack rates, but less than Hope, which sees just under 21 violations per 100 people. The District of Kent has the lowest at seven violations per 100 people.
grace.kennedy@ahobserver.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
