Chilliwack's 2023 crime rate spiked by 17 per cent over the year before, according to numbers from Statistics Canada.
It turns out it was the highest year-over-year increase in the country, after a stretch of watching the Chilliwack crime rate drop.
Statistics Canada just released its police-reported crime statistics report for 2023. Chilliwack's crime severity index (CSI) was ranked second worst in Canada by census metropolitan area, and the third-worst crime rate in Canada. Kamloops is listed as having the highest crime in rate in Canada, and Red Deer, AB rounds out the top three.
The crime rate measures the volume of crime, while the CSI measures the volume and severity of crime.
Asked for reaction about the stats, Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove told The Chilliwack Progress they are always striving to "stay on top of crime," with city partners, and stressed that the level of crime always fluctuates.
For example crime was down in the last quarter, he said.
"We take crime and policing very seriously in Chilliwack, and every year we add resources and members to the local police force," Popove said.
Chilliwack's crime severity index or CSI in 2023 was 156.2, which marked a 24-per-cent increase over 2022. There were six Chilliwack homicides in 2023, compared to three in 2022.
The highest CSI in the country in 2023 was in Kamloops, at 165.3. Stats Can officials caution that CSI is a composite index and not meant to be looked at "in isolation" and it's not a "universal indicator of community safety."
There is no "silver bullet" for a growing city like Chilliwack to stop crime, Popove underlined.
He points to collaborative tables like Chilliwack Healthier Community, the Housing First Task Team and the Chilliwack Interagency Response Table, as examples of where Chilliwack is chipping away at crime, homelessness and addictions.
"The collaboration at those tables is work that I'm most proud of," the mayor continued. "Taking on crime is a complex endeavour."
There was a local hotbed of crime dismantled in 2023 with the longstanding homeless encampment removed outside Island 22 Regional Park.
That camp and its occupants led to RCMP opening hundreds of police files, as reported in The Progress in March and caused a spike in crime that rippled across the region in 2023.
The 130 people linked to the Island 22 encampment accounted for a whopping 734 police files in Chilliwack in 2023, and more than 900 files opened in other jurisdictions.
Chilliwack's crime rate was pegged at 11,615 in the 2023 Stats Can report, which was a 17 per cent increase over the year before - making it the highest jump in Canada.
Compare Abbotsford-Mission's much-lower crime rate at 6,725, which was still a hefty year-over-year increase of 15 per cent.
Popove pointed to the Car 67 program which has done "fantastic" work in Chilliwack since it started pairing a police officer with a mental-health nurse to respond to mental health calls for service.
"The strategy for the Car 67 program is working well. It enables RCMP officers to do their police work, while the nurses can meet people where they're at," Popove said. "We finally got this going in Chilliwack after pushing for it for years."
Most communities with a Car 67 program also have an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team.
"That would give us more boots on the ground," Popove said.
ACT teams provide community support for serious mental health issues, and the teams comprise psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, social workers, nurses, police, addiction recovery workers, mental health workers and probation officer case managers.
There are 28 ACT teams across B.C, but Chilliwack does not have one, despite years of advocating for one, the mayor said.
"It's a community problem. So we'll continue to advocate for services to make Chilliwack a safe place to live."
