BC homicide rate drops to all-time low
Posted July 24, 2011 12:46 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The crime rate in Canada last year dropped to its lowest level in 38 years, according to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada.
BC saw some the biggest declines, especially for violent crimes.
The homicide rate fell to an all-time low last year, which doesn’t come as a big surprise to Criminologist Darryl Plecas with the University of the Fraser Valley.
He says just a few years ago we’d see gang-related shootings in Metro Vancouver almost every other day, but not anymore.
“What’s the difference? Well, police began to pour a concentrated effort onto that, more resources into that,” he says.
“The drop for me is not surprising. I would expect we would continue to see drops, so long as we can do what we’ve done in recent times and that is a move to ensure that police have more capacity to respond to crime.”
He hopes the government doesn’t get the wrong message from these statistics by deciding to start cutting back on police funding.
