Crime severity continues to rise in York Region

Statistics Canada data shows another increase in the Crime Severity Index for York Region in 2018

Newmarkettoday.ca
July 19, 2019
Kim Champion

New national data that tracks the amount and seriousness of police-reported crime shows that York Region has steadily ticked upward over the past four years.

Known as the Crime Severity Index (CSI), the latest set of 2018 data released in July by Statistics Canada measures year-to-year changes in the severity of crimes, as well as how often they are committed. It does this to better understand the impact of crime on people and the communities in which they live.

The CSI assigns all crimes a weight, with the most serious of crimes such as homicides receiving a higher weight. Therefore, the lower a community’s CSI score, the higher the level of quality of life enjoyment among its residents.

Since 2014, York Region’s overall CSI score has shot up nearly 10 points. In 2018, the region’s rank sat at 40, up two points from 2017, six points from 2016, and nearly 10 points from its CSI rating of 30 in 2014.

To put the index rates in perspective, Canada’s overall CSI was 75 in 2018, or two per cent higher than in 2017, marking four years of increase, as well, after 11 years of declines.

Ontario’s CSI, meanwhile, saw a six per cent increase in 2018, for a CSI rating of 60.

“Despite the increases in some categories of reported crime, York Region still remains one of the safest communities in Canada,” York police Const. Andy Pattenden said in an emailed statement. “In 2019 and beyond, we will continue to ensure our communities remain safe and secure through innovative and modern policing practices focused on the needs of the communities we serve.”

Pattenden added that the local force’s “ongoing proactive enforcement and community engagement play a significant role in working with our communities to help address these issues”.

The region’s violent crime severity index has also risen to 43, up from 32 points in 2014. Non-violent crime was also up by nine points over the past four years, where it sits with a 2018 ranking of 39.

In York police’s #1 District, which serves an estimated 214,000 people in the communities of Newmarket, Aurora, northern King, East Gwillimbury, and northern Whitchurch-Stouffville, a 2018 statistical report compiled by York police showed a rise in crimes against persons, property and weapons violations.

Local drug violations, on the other hand, declined, according to police data.

Those local statistics align with the regional data that appears in York Regional Police 2018 annual report, which shows Criminal Code violations in 2017-2018 are up 8.5 per cent.

That includes a 34 per cent spike in weapons violations, a 13 per cent increase in crimes against persons, and a six per cent bump in crimes against property. Regionally, drug violations also dropped 14 per cent.

For its part, StatsCan said the change in the country’s CSI in 2018 was the result of higher police-reported rates of numerous offences, including fraud (up 13 per cent), level 1 sexual assault, meaning without a weapon or evidence of bodily harm (up 15 per cent), shoplifting of $5,000 or under (up 14 per cent), and theft over $5,000 (up 15 per cent).

“After two years of discussion around sexual misconduct and unfounded sexual assaults, the police-reported rate of sexual assault continued to increase,” the StatsCan report said.

In 2018, the local police service that serves about 1.2 million residents across York Region’s nine municipalities received just more than 250,000 emergency calls to 911.

The total cost of policing rang in at $315 million last year.