Still high on the Crime Stats rankings; Improvement being found for Prince Rupert in annual Maclean's National Crime review

The Prince Rupert Detachment of the RCMP
(photo from City of PR)

The efforts of the Prince Rupert detachment of the RCMP seem to be paying off when it comes towards long range goals of reduction of crime in the community.

That as Prince Rupert finds some positive news in an annual ranking of Crime Severity in Canada compiled by the national news magazine Maclean's as part of their Dangerous Places 2019 feature.

The snapshot results on crime from 237 communities nation wide were released today and for the North Coast, the review provides the best news for Prince Rupert when it comes to a new category, that of a five year overview.

The overall 2018 findings show the city moving down the list of most dangerous communities through that five year span, though the latest review does show that there are areas where things still need more attention, particularly when it comes to robbery, assault and sexual assault.

In the latest notes, when it comes to Crime Severity Prince Rupert is placed towards the top of the list at 21st of the 237 communities in the All Crimes category, a rise from last year's placement of 28th, with violent crime of particular concern marked by a 7th spot placement.

The survey also provides for a few surprising entries, particularly Prince Rupert's placement in the Homicide category that of 3rd overall, which is based on two homicides, a stat that is based on a per population notation.

That statistical anomaly was recorded however, coming after a high profile, family double homicide in the community during the stats period review.

Overall there are fourteen categories that are used in the comparison of communities, the placement for Prince Rupert in each category included:

Violent Crime 7/237
Homicide 3/237
Sexual Assault 12/237
Assault 3/237
Firearms offences 144/237
Robbery 14/237
Breaking and Entering  153/237
Fraud 133/237
Impaired Driving   32/237
Cannabis Trafficking  35/237
Cocaine Trafficking 156/237
Other Drug Trafficking  180/237
Youth Crime 172/237

The numbers on drug crimes also may raise a few eyebrows, either suggesting that the issue is not as large a concern as many might think, or that enforcement efforts may be slipping through some cracks in the region.

There is improvement being found in Prince Rupert where the Maclean's survey has noted a change of 27.49 for the North Coast when it comes to results over the last five years.

Those findings mean, that when it comes to being considered one of Canada's Most Dangerous Places for 2019, Prince Rupert has done better than most, listed at  223rd of the 237 spots on the review.

Things are a little bit different as you make your way eastbound in Northern British Columbia where the flags are all red when it comes to crime.

Terrace is marked  at 18th overall across the country when it comes to all crimes, 79th overall in the Most Dangerous Places listing.

Prince George continues to be one of the hot spots for crime in the nation, holding down 10th place overall from this years review of all crimes, 21st overall when it comes to Dangerous Places.

When it comes to the overall look at the British Columbia returns, the three northern communities along with Dawson Creek easily find their inclusion when it comes to the Top Ten results for all crimes.

The Central Interior also continues to rank high in the annual survey, with Williams Lake and Quesnel topping the list of British Columbia communities from the Maclean's review.

The Ten most dangerous communities in British Columbia from the 2018 Maclean's Crime Survey

Prince Rupert and Terrace are the only Northwest BC communities reviewed for the survey, a search engine delivers the findings from all of the categories for the rest of the country.

You can examine the results from the full study from Maclean's here.

The Maclean's findings are taken from the Stats Canada review of the Crime Severity Index, those findings were released in August of this year.

For more notes related to the work of emergency responders across the Northwest see our archive page here.

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