Gun violence factor in higher overall crime ranking: York police
York Region ranks 189th out of 237 communities on Maclean's most dangerous places 2020
Newmarkettoday.ca
November 21, 2019
Kim Champion
The 2018 national crime data shows that Newmarket and York Region continue to be among the safest communities in which to live in Canada, but an increase in local gun violence is contributing to a bump in overall crime, a York Regional Police spokesperson says.
“We are seeing an increase in the number of illegal handguns that are being used and that are being seized by our officers,” Const. Andy Pattenden said. “We have issued numerous media releases over the last few months with accompanying video that has shown the disregard for community safety by suspects who have been firing handguns in otherwise quiet neighbourhoods.”
York Region’s ranking on Maclean’s list of the most dangerous places in Canada 2020 released yesterday dipped slightly to 189th place out of 237 communities analyzed with a population over 10,000. In the publication’s 2019 edition, the region ranked 199th.
In relative terms, that's a four per cent move on the list that indicates an upward trend in crime overall.
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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 Crime Severity Index (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 risen 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 after 11 years of declines.
Ontario’s CSI, meanwhile, saw a six per cent increase in 2018, for a CSI rating of 60.
“We have many initiatives in place to help keep York Region one of Canada’s safest communities,” Pattenden said. “Two of those initiatives worth highlighting are our ongoing efforts to arrest those responsible for residential break-and-enters and our work to disrupt organized crime that operates within our region.”
One of the organized crime investigations was a three-day operation known as Project Sindacato, which included the arrest of nine key members of the Woodbridge-based Figliomeni organized crime group and the seizure of more than $35 million in cash, houses, merchandise and luxury vehicles such as an $880,000 Ferrari.
As well, the local force’s integrated property crime task force recently identified and charged people who are coming here with the purpose of profiting from break-and-enters, Pattenden said.
You can read more about the break-and-enter investigations on NewmarketToday here and here.
“We have also launched our new video surveillance registry that is designed to create a database of camera locations within our community, so in the event of a crime, our investigators know where to go quickly to try and obtain video surveillance,” Pattenden added.
“We continue to urge all residents to invest in residential video surveillance systems as they not only deter crime, but in the event of a crime occurring, they provide valuable evidence.”
York police encourages the public to report anything suspicious by calling 1-866-876-5423 or to report anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS. You can register your security camera here.
Visit macleans.ca to read the complete Canada’s Most Dangerous Places 2020 report.
