The landscape of crime in Kelowna has changed over the past few years and the RCMP held a press conference on July 25 to explain how they are responding to the diverse needs of the community.
Statistics Canada released its ‘Police-reported crime statistics in Canada,' report for 2023, which shows that the Crime Severity Index (CSI) – a metric used to determine the impact of crime on a community – decreased by 5.9 per-cent.
“I am proud of our efforts and pleased with the steady decrease in 2023 crime across many areas of violent and non-violent crime,” said Supt. Kara Triance, Kelowna/Central Okanagan RCMP detachment.
"We are no longer at the top, we are seventh in the country," said Supt. Triance, about the latest statistics. In past years, Kelowna has been at or near the top of country in the crime severity index per capita. Kelowna also led the nation in non-violent crime in 2022.
The Kelowna Census Metropolitan Area includes Kelowna, West Kelowna, Westbank First Nation, Lake Country and Peachland.
In calculating the CSI, more serious offences like murder or child sexual abuse are assigned a higher value than less serious offences like mischief or minor theft. Then, the number of police reported crimes are multiplied by their severity values and then added together to determine the CSI for each community.
While the frequency of some crimes, like making and distributing child sexual abuse materials and fraud increased, other types of crime like business break and enters decreased in Kelowna.
The top five issues that impacted the Kelowna crime severity index in 2023 are the making and distribution of child sexual abuse material which increased by 83.1 per cent, fraud which is up 36 per cent, shoplifting under $5,000 with an increase of 4.6 per cent, reported sexual assaults which increased by 29.9 per-cent and business break and enters, which decreased by 27.9 per cent.
Over the past year, the Kelowna and Central Okanagan RCMP developed and implemented several programs including the Repeat Violent Offending Intervention Initiative and Management Programs and collaboration between businesses and community safety branches to address the five key crime severity index drivers. The RCMP has also increased visibility on the streets and has increased monitoring of areas that have been identified as at risk for criminal activity.
"We value our partnerships in our communities, and together, we will continue to strive to achieve significant changes by addressing the root causes of criminality,” said Supt. Triance.
The City of Kelowna has also invested more than 40 per cent of its annual operating budget into community safety. Most notably, the city had invested $130,000 towards the launch of the Uptown Rutland Business Association On-Call program.
To learn more about Kelowna's community safety plan visit kelowna.ca.
For more information and to see the data compiled by Statistics Canada visit statcan.gc.ca.
