Crime reported to police is down in B.C. for the third year in a row. The report from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics shows declines in violent crime, homicides and property crime for an overall decrease of eight per cent from 2006 to 2007.
Aug. 26, 2008
VICTORIA – Crime reported to police is down in B.C. for the third year in a row. The latest report from the
Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics shows declines in violent crime, homicides and property crime for an overall decrease of eight per cent from 2006 to 2007.
“Our government has made substantial investments in policing and public safety,” said John van Dongen, Solicitor General and Minister of Public Safety. “Since 2001, we have increased the annual policing budget by $128 million, and returned $250 million of traffic fine revenue to local governments to support their crime-fighting efforts. We have invested $44 million in PRIME, which gives police instant access to information to help fight crime, and created the Civil Forfeiture Office to take the profit out of illegal activity.”
In B.C. in 2007, the number of reported crimes, and the per-capita crime rate, declined in all categories: crimes against persons (violent crime including robbery); crimes against property (including break and enter and vehicle theft) and ‘other’ crimes (such as vandalism, prostitution and counterfeit currency).
In 2007, a total of 457,008 Criminal Code offences were reported, almost 35,000 fewer offences or seven per cent less than reported in 2006:
- There were 1,182 fewer violent offences which led to a four per cent drop in the violent crime rate – a new 20-year low. In 2007, homicides dropped by 19 per cent with 20 fewer than reported in 2006.
- Declines were reported in all property-crime categories in 2007 resulting in a nine per cent drop in the property crime rate.
- The number of motor vehicles stolen dropped by one-third from 2003 to 2007 – a 30 per cent decline.
“The Bait Car program has been extremely effective in driving down vehicle theft and we are working on reducing property offences even further with our Community Court and Prolific Offender projects,” van Dongen said. “However, we understand there is still work to be done, particularly with high-profile gang shootings and drug offences which fuel organized crime. That is why we are developing the Community Safety Strategy and have devoted $53 million in federal funding towards gang violence and organized crime.”
The crime reports are located at:
www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/police_services/publications 
