Supt. Credits Hard Work of Members for Drop in Crime Severity Index
Wednesday, August 1, 2012 @ 1:45 PM
Prince George, B.C.- The Superintendent of the RCMP detachment in Prince George, Eric Stubbs, says there is one simple reason for the recent reduction in severe crime in Prince George, the members who work at the detachment. “They work hard, putting in hours after their shift, getting their files done, to make sure things are done right. They have done some great work and I just want to acknowledge that” says Stubbs.The latest report from Stats Canada indicates the overall crime severity index for Prince George dropped 20 pts last year to 159. That’s the lowest it has ever been and it has meant Prince George dropped in the Stats Canada rankings from 7th to 14th. ( see previous story)
Superintendent Stubbs says the hard work of the members last year resulted in more than 1500 people being charged with criminal offences in Prince George.
(click on photo at right for video of Supt. Stubbs)
Supt. Stubbs says the focus continues to be “on areas which continued to cause concern”. The areas of concern include prolific offenders, gangs and guns and the downtown enforcement unit. In 2011 there were 15 prolific offenders under investigation, today, 9 of them are in jail, and the remaining 6 “at most times throughout 2011 were on some type of judiciary conditions.”
He says the drug task force has done a great job in targeting mid to high level players in the drug trade, making a number of arrests, several seizures of drugs and guns.
He says the development of the Downtown Enforcement Unit has lead to a 24% reduction in crime in the downtown core.
And while there is still a gang presence in Prince George, Supt. Stubbs they are not as strong as they used to be. He also notes that just as is the case with legitimate business, when the market share opens up in the drug trade, “someone steps forward to try and fill that gap, that is our on going battle.”
But Stubbs says to continue to reduce crime in the community, the detachment will continue to work with its partners which include government and social agencies, to address some of the root causes of crime.
While the Statistics Canada report shows Prince George is not the crime capital of Canada, Macleans Magazine uses a different set of numbers to make its annual evaluation. The magazine pegged P.G. as the most dangerous community in Canada in both 2010 and 2011. “I don’t know what Macleans is going to do” says Supt. Stubbs “my issue is this, getting the label as the most dangerous community in Canada can be very damaging to a community as well as a police force, particularly when its not true. The numbers from Statistics Canada show that , that is not the case. So that label is something I don’t want, don’t appreciate and I don’t think the community does either because its not true.”
“Despite some assertions to the contrary, we are not the most dangerous community in Canada” says Superintendent Stubbs, “Having said all that, we continue to have issues in Prince George as all communities do.” One of the issues facing the community right now, is a rash of business break ins and Stubbs says there is a group of youth who have been breaking into vehicles.
Superintendent Stubbs says while not surprised by the latest positive stats, there is still work to be done to ensure the numbers continue to go down “The RCMP is committed to making Prince George a secure and safe community. We will build on our successes from 2011 by being pro active, intelligence lead, and focus our resources on the offenders who cause this community the most concern.”
(Below, graphs show trends in Crime Severity Index for Prince George, and number of homicides in the community- graphs courtesy RCMP)
Comments
Don’t really care what Macleans has to say, these men and women who keep our butts safe in our town do work hard and they do that despite the overcrowded conditions in that decrepit building they occupy. Good to see some of the fools who screw up our lives are still behind bars where they can’t get to our kids.
Thanks PG mounties for all yer hard work!
You said it Slim2229!
Great work PG Mounties.
“crime severity index for Prince George dropped 159 ……… Thatâs the lowest it has ever been and it has meant Prince George dropped in the Stats Canada rankings from 7th to 14th”
Okay …. something does not quite fit here. I have been here since 1973 and most certainly have never felt or thought that this city was so high up in the severity standings as it is now, and yet this is as low as it has ever been.
I thought it was the recent – say in the last decade or even two – increase in gang related crimes that caused the figurs to be as high as they were.
So why were they so high in 1973? Or were they? When did we have this new measure? Andif it is new, what is the relationship to the old numbers? After all, keeping crime stats is not new. The amount of data we capture may be, or the way the info is used may even have changed.
I do not know about others, but I certainly would understand this better with a bit more background information about the claim that this is the lowest it has ever been …… the police do not get off that easy with that statement.
Gus, it may be the way stats were collected in 73 compared to now. And it could be that what Macleans reported were stats collected and/or read differently. I know in the 70’s these guys were running 50 comlplaints on a Friday and Saturday night, it was getting a little crazy.Collecting stats is like getting 10 lawyers to agree on the wording of a new law, all in the interpretation……..
BTW, if you look closely, there is no strong relationship between violent crime and homicides ….. If they were to print the curves on one graph that would be more readily apparent.
Oh Gus… I suspect your OCD’ness towards facts and figures makes you an amazing engineer but take a breath. The “its the lowest its ever been” is from the article not a police quote.
The graph starts in 98 so perhaps it should have said “that’s the lowest its been since 98”? I truly doubt they even had a “crime severity index” in 1973
Way to go RCMP, thank you for your efforts
I agree, the RCMP have done a good job but we still had a 55% increase in children sexual offences. Glad they were charged but still a scary stat that scars even more on this pothole.
slim2229: “the overcrowded conditions in that decrepit building they occupy.”
I agree with the kudos to cops, but no building needs to become decrepit if regular maintenance and repair is done.
Bad on the City for letting it go.
metalman.
“Credits Hard Work of Members for Drop in Crime Severity Index”
So tell me people, the crime severity index in 2001 was 160 …. it then went to a high in 2004 of 2030 or so …..
Is the obvious parallel then not that the meteoric rise over that three ear period was laziness on the part of the RCMP?
Sure, give them a pat on the back. I hope that the figure does not go up for 2012 because he would be at a loss for words then to explain why it happened.
Maybe the drop is due to the 911 civilian members “pretending to be police officers”, doing the pick and choose what to dispatch on and what is “nothing to worry about”.
I have had occasion(s) to call to report situations that warranted police attendance, just to be berated over the phone by a civilian dispatcher, “it’s busy and we will see what we can do”. Seriously?
All of that just to read a few days later that some copper wire was taken or a residence was forcibly entered just blocks from my residence.
O.K. so being a proactive resident is not an acceptable practice, apparently it causes too many issues for the dispatchers. Dialing 911 is just a formality to ensure your insurance company will honor your claim for loss.
Well, that sure didn’t take them long. After all the bad press the RCMP are getting for tazerings, drunk driving charges, assaults, harassment, missing jailhouse video in Houston, the dude shot in the field in Vanderhoof, the 3 excessive speeding off duty cops on their motorcycles walking free, etc, etc, etc. I would’ve thought they would’ve cooked the statistics books a lot sooner than they did.
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