Like Avis we will try harder. We have a lot of "trustworthy" policemen who never lie, and non-hanging judges and revolving doors and 2 for 1 sales going on all the time. Then again why should we try harder? How about some basketball courts installed around town to keep those potential gangsters from being bad. They have them in Toronto.

I think it is nice to see that PG is trying to excel at something. Sustained (lack of) effort in social development in PG should bring us to number 1.

We almost podiumed or medaled! Missed by THAT much!

It's the repeat offenders who keep repeating and repeating while they are allowed to be at large when in fact they should be locked up and isolated from our society for which they show only utter contempt and disrespect!

The other day the showed a B&E *artist* in Vancouver who had a rap sheet of a hundred criminal offenses - still roaming freely!

We must have a few of that type of scum up here too!

I think we need to bring in some new laws.

Caught stealing cut off a finger

It works in the Middle east.

This should help attract tourism for the new performing arts center. Yet another reason not to waste taxpayers money on that thing!

I agree with He Speaks somewhat, they need to bring in some tougher laws. Maybe not that extreme though.

It all comes down to accontability. People are not accountable for their actions anymore. There are no consequences for ones actions.

I am deeply disturbed by the case of the greyhound beheader. The guy mutilates someone he doesnt know and is not criminally responisble????????
Oh, the poor crazy murderer was hearing thing and should be taken care of. What about the poor guy that was murdered and his family that does not get to see justice for his murderer.

I just dont know what to say right now. Society is going down faster than the economy.

Good luck Mrs. Butterworth-Carr. I sure hope you are able to make a difference in this city. Something sure has to change.

This should come as no surprise... we have a lot of third world reserves in the North and PG is the catchment area for all those looking for a new life with no life skills coming from these places... PG's crime problem is not a homegrown problem, but rather the effects of being the largest city in the northern two thirds of the province catching all the lost souls from an area the size of Germany.

I bet if you factored out all the people that have lived in PG for less than 5-years in our crime stats, than PG would be near the top of the list for lowest crime rate in Canada. Ditto if you factored out the hood and the downtown crimes from the rest of the city where the vast majority of desperado transient resident reside.

I think this is significant because it proven true it would tell us that the scale of our social problems in PG are actually a problem in the small communities throughout the north that manifest themselves in PG. t

This is a provincial problem that requires provincial funding sources and provincial solutions. Its no coincidence that PG tops the list for BC cities and BC cities top the list for Canada. IMO it comes down to political accountability to rural and native issues.

PG continues to be the number 1 in BC. If one considers both assaults together,then on the average crime is increasing in PG except for robbery. What are the actual numbers for PG over the past decade and when is the turning point in PG becoming the no 1?

He Speaks: "I think we need to bring in some new laws."

Perhaps. But how about enforcing the laws we already have and backing them up with some really meaningful three-strikes-you-are-out sentencing requirements?

Looks like the crooks are always wiggling off the hook - stressful childhood, abusive father or mother, etc, etc. That has to change. Adults must be responsible for ALL their actions. No more excuses!

Curious - are we 127% ABOVE the national average or do we have 127% OF the national average?

For it's population size, PG is #1 in crime. To compare, the Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam area RCMP handled about 48,000 police files last year. This was with a population of about 200,000 to police.

Prince George on the other hand, had about the same number of files to deal with and the popluation is only 60 - 70 thousand.

It's very busy in PG.

Who cares maybe we got to many rats here that need to be taken out of town to deal with. Shut you mouth and there won't be any crime. I say let the street take care of itself and the rats shut up.

Who cares maybe we got to many rats here that need to be taken out of town to deal with. Shut you mouth and there won't be any crime. I say let the street take care of itself and the rats shut up.

I don't think lmorg is correct... I'm pretty sure this survey is based on per capita.

Eagleone has it entirely correct. If you look at a map you will notice that this is also the reason Winnipeg, Regina, and Saskatoon join us on this list. Edmonton is up there too.

We had our own Not Criminally Responsible. His name was Sullivan. How soon we (some of us) forget. How many years ago?

The laws are in place, the punishments are not! We as a society, should not tolerate this criminal behaviour. When a youth commits his/her first crime, the penalty should be severe, very severe! It should be so severe, that they will not want to ever come back for seconds.

I think the middle east has it right! Their sentences are severe. And when you chop someones head off with a sword, they will not be coming back for seconds.

Get tough on crime "they" say. Then lets do it. Three strikes, "YOU ARE OUT OF OUR FACE". These dirt bags, commit crime after crime after crime. As diplomat said, one low life, had approx. 100 convictions on his rap sheet. HELLO, why is he walking around. What a load of crap.

The whole judicial system is pathetic. This includes the cops, the judges, the parole board, the probation system, and the big one, the GOVERNMENT. We need action, and we need it now. No more mister nice guy!

Maybe we need to bring in some curbside justice.

cheers, have a great crime free day! lol

Lets try for #1 next year, no use coming in fourth!
LOL

There are 9 towns and cities in the lower mainland on the list. Now because of its density I consider Metro Vancouver one large city similar to Toronto. Now combining all these areas together I wonder what that would do to the stats.

seamutt, who cares?? Quit blaming the other guy. We have a serious problem in our city, and if you want to do stats on other communities, you have missed the BUS!!

You are part of the problem. Old school said, "it wasn't my child that did that, it was the other kid". Give me a damn break already. We are one bad ass town, that is a fact!

Harbinger, I haven't forgotten about Sullivan... that was when I first realized our judicial system is a farce full of hypocrites and does not represent society. I still think that was the most despicable judicial case ever seen by this town... I wonder if the judge in that case was the same one arrested a few years later for child abuse.

I knew the family that was devastated by that horrendous crime... he did that in front of her kids, then raped her friend on the scene, then had no remorse for his crime... and the judge not only released him because he was 'drunk' at the time, therefore not responsible (as long as you are drunk or hearing voices), but also the judge ruled that he get his job back at PG Pulp with something like $100,000 in lost wages while in custody... the most horrendous crime I've even known of and the judicial system treated him like he had just won the lottery.... I'm surprised we didn't have riots in the street for that one....

Hey wolfie, ahem...you think you think. I happen to know..... Have worked both cities.

So Imorg, if you don't understand what you're thinking, then what does it matter if you worked both cities... or automatically would you be right regardless of whether or not you understand the issue?

Its a curious logic you have from my perspective....

What I have read so far tells me that the Prince George born, bred and raised in PG population are not responsible for the crime that is over running their city. My wife and I are two of the born, bred and raised people from PG and we do not agree that the problem is transients or natives or any other specific group for that matter. It is stated by many in these post's that their appears to be a problem in outer lying communities specifically the poorer native communities and native population, who according to some in these post's have not been given the proper social upbringing that is required to properly live out side their communities, let alone live in PG.
The problems are much bigger than these pointed fingers at the selected groups people don't appear to like.
It is a culture that has been created by all of us and it begins when we decide that some one else is the problem or to blame rather than looking very hard in our own back yard first. If our sons and daughters are involved in criminal activities then we as parents need to begin by holding them accountable for their actions, if that means they go to jail then they go to jail.
From their we can begin to try to help them change. We as citizens of the world need to accept this problem as our creation...no one else made this problem, we did. You, your wife and your children have the ability to make choices and for every choice there are consequences, some consequences are good and some are bad. If the consequence is bad then the owner of the original choice needs to accept the consequence as their own, the same goes for good consequences.
If you don't like what you see then change what you see, "only you can changed you". Know that you can not change others but you can change yourself if you wish to. Remember you do not know, see or feel what others see or feel, you can try to understand if you wish, to gain empathy for the other person but real change is an individual thing (which means you have no control over others) and it comes from within.
So begin by fixing you....and only you, try to help others understand that they are the masters of their own destiny and the only person that can fix them is themselves.

Eagleone, you are an nitwit....what the hell are U talking about...read my post..I am quoteing wolfie.

Imorg, I know you're quoting wolfie, but that still doesn't make you right... you are arguing that the per capita crime in PG is much higher than in Port Coquitlam... the counter argument is that if you take the transient crime stats say for people that have been in PG less than 5-years out of the over all numbers, then it is likely that the per capita numbers gap would close... the genus of the idea being not as you say that we are comparing apples with apples, but rather that PG like other rural catchment cities has a unique situation that skews our results relative to cities like say for example Port Coquitlam. If you really wanted to enter the debate and claim that Port Coquitlam has the same catchment area of poor disposed rural migrants, then I would suggest you lose that argument flat out. So yes I would suggest you didn't even get what the debate was about... and thus the comment on your funny logic... from my perspective.

Just a thought.
Would it help if Prince George had it's own police force?
The RCMP structure for career development has them moving around from job to job and town town continually.I wonder if this has a negative impact in the way the individual officers are willing to invest their best efforts in Prince George.

Prince George couldn't afford to have its own police force. The start up costs would be astronomical. People don't realise it, but having the RCMP in PG is the best bang for their dollar anywhere.

I tend to agree with Lmorg, Eagleone. I was and still am a cop in Prince George for 17 years and am now located in the Tri City area (Poco, Coquitlam etc) and I can tell you that the file load in prince george is heavier per capita as opposed to this particular area in the lower mainland of BC. For a town with a population of 70 thousand (give or take a few thousand) PG is a very busy place!

A provincial police force could provide the same bang for the buck as the RCMP if enough communities in the province used them.

The RCMP refuse to accept responsibility to the same standards of the law that the rest of society is to be held accountable for... even if discipline is taken out of the equation. That goes to the heart of integrity of the force and their right to police as peace officers, or even in some cases as law enforcement, when their image alone is tarnished, because of their own actions covering up the inexcusable.

A provincial force could be mandated by the province, and thus a clear flow chart of accountability could be established that sees a force that operates not above the law, but rather to serve the law with accountability to the public. The RCMP have established that they want no part to do with accountability... and this is a dangerous thing for any democracy to allow to continue IMO.

In some of these high profile cases the RCMP should have shown leadership and called a spade a spade and made charges, disciplinary action, and accountibility on record for not securing the publics safety by not having a working tape recorder in an interrogation room, or shooting unarmed suspects, and pulling the tazer trigger five times because it feels neat to do.

To say the RCMP are the best bang for the buck is to ignore anyone who thinks a police force should operate within the law serving and protecting the public.

So we all agree with Imorg's stats (for over all crime), and I do as well, but the point being made was that migrant populations are great in PG than in Port Coquitlam, and this is a significant factor in the PG crime rate... are you denying that?

I think any observer on the ground could easily deduce this, but neither of use can say for sure because we don't have those kinds of stats available for the proper kind of public policy decisions, or opinions based on fact. Stats that don't reflect unique circumstances for these communities are irrelevant to a proper comparison was my point I was making.

That said I respect that its a difficult job sometimes and that RCMP officers likely don't like my tone in making my point, but all my points are legitimate unless you can show me otherwise, and I would say that is a significant indictment on the organization that I can even make these points with any validity.

Thats my rant for today.

On that note...TheGrand i'm curious to hear your thoughts on the Braidwood Inquiry. What do you think of these four officers? I'd like to hear your answer as you would think about it now on this date then go back more than 17 yrs. before you became an officer and think about it in that state of mind. I'm just curious.