Little changed from 2016 to 2017 when it came to crime severity in Thompson, which was once again first in violent crime severity for communities with 10,000 or more people and second in overall crime severity in StatsCan’s Crime Severity Index (CSI) released this week.
Thompson moved up to second in non-violent crime severity in 2017 from third the previous year.
The CSI is released annually. Unlike the crime rate, it doesn’t simply look at the number of crimes committed but assigns greater weight to crimes that are usually punished with longer prison sentences as a way to quantify the severity of crime that is occurring.
North Battleford, Sask. was ranked first in overall crime severity, with a CSI score of 371.58 compared to 333.24 for Thompson. The two were the only communities on the overall CSI with scores greater than 300. The rest of the top 10 were Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Prince Albert, Sask., Portage la Prairie, Red Deer, Alberta, Williams Lake, B.C., Leduc, Alberta, Langley City, B.C. and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, which had scores ranging from about 185 to 257.
Thompson’s violent crime score was 505.08, more than 100 points higher than North Battleford, which had a score of 404.56. Wetaskiwin, with a score of 301.43, was the only other city on the violent CSI with a score above 300.
On the non-violent CSI, Thompson’s score of 270.65 was second only to North Battleford, which had a score of 358.85.
Thompson and Portage la Prairie appear in the top 10 on the overall, violent and non-violent CSI rankings, along with North Battleford and Prince Albert in Saskatchewan, Wetaskiwin and Williams Lake. Apart from Belleville, Ont., which was 1oth in the violent CSI rankings, all the other communities in the top 10 for overall, violent and non-violent crime severity are in Western Canada.
Among larger cities, Winnipeg had the fourth-highest CSI in the country, with a score of slightly over 100.
Thompson RCMP detachment officer-in-charge Insp. Kevin Lewis isn’t surprised by the numbers.
“The calls for service in Thompson have increased,” he told the Nickel Belt News. “Thompson Detachment opened over 17,000 files in 2017, of which 7,075 were criminal in nature. We are seeing a rise in many categories including assault, robbery, uttering threats, other Criminal Code activities, disturbing the peace, impaired driving, and many other categories.”
He also notes that Thompson’s crime severity is impacted by the types of calls Thompson RCMP officers deal with.
“Many of the calls for service that are captured for Stats Canada are weighted very heavy, such as assaults,” said Lewis. “Based on our population, this drives up our score for crime severity. In addition, we have seen an increase of RCMP members in Thompson and have maintained consistent police officers on the road, which also results in more proactive enforcement, which again drives up the Crime Severity Index. This occurs for impaired driving and patrols of the downtown core where we witness an assault that would normally go unreported. In addition, Thompson is the hub of Northern Manitoba, which makes it a desirable place for drug trafficking, and other nefarious activities. This is a common theme for hub cities across Canada. Our proactive drug enforcement also provides an increase in the CSI, as cocaine trafficking is weighted heavily on the CSI. Disturbing the peace is similar to mischief where intoxication occurs in a public place, resulting in many violations due to the downtown core, again weighing heavily on our score.”
Despite the high volume of calls in Thompson, Lewis says the CSI doesn’t necessarily indicate that the city is dangerous for the average citizen.
“We have seen an overall increase in transient people that are not from Thompson, but choose to stay here on a temporary basis,” Lewis says. “Many of our transient population are consuming alcohol and other non-potable substances, which results in criminal activity including assaults, sexual assault, public disturbances, and in some cases homicide. Many of our mischiefs are related to intoxicated persons in a private residence or hotel room, but can also be used to capture damage to property. The mischief rate is high and when the weight is applied, it provides a high ratio for our CSI score.”
The factors that affect Thompson’s crime severity are similar in much of the province, Justice Minister Heather Stefanson and Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said in a joint statement to the Nickel Belt News.
“These crime statistics are long-term trends in Winnipeg and in Manitoba, which is why we are taking action as a province to make our communities safer,” the statement said.
Those actions include the Canadian Justice System Modernization Strategy to better align police resources to reduce crime and an incentive program to fund innovative crime reduction initiatives that included $500,000 made available to police from the proceeds of crime fund.
One of the big drivers behind Manitoba’s crime rates and severity is addiction, the provincial government says.
“We are working to help people deal with their addictions while stopping drug traffickers from distributing meth and opiates on our streets,” said the ministers’ statement. “There is plenty more work left to do, but we are confident our proactive initiatives will make Manitoba’s communities safer.”
To that end, the province is providing $1.2 million to create five Rapid Access to Addictions Medicine clinics around the province, with the first one in Winnipeg expected to open by the end of this summer. It is also spending $1.4 million from the Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund to address mental health, drug addiction and gang involvement that are factors in the increasing crime rate.
Lewis concurs that addictions are an underlying cause of crime.
“Addictions-related offences are the real driver in Thompson, and as the police we deal with the symptoms of a bigger problem,” he said. “This is why it is critical that all partner agencies pull together to provide a sliver of the solution that can lead to an overall effective solution when each agency provides a contribution. Thompson is in need of multi-level support system for those with addictions.”
