Photo: Contributed
The aftermath of a Kelowna business break-in last year.
Statistics Canada has released its annual crime report and things are not looking good in the Central Okanagan.
Metro Kelowna, which includes all communities from Lake Country to Peachland, reported a crime rate per 100,000 last year of 11,112.
This is the worst crime rate of any census metropolitan area in Canada and a 10 percent increase from 2020. Nationally, the crime rate per 100,000 rose just one percent to 5,375 in 2021.
After Kelowna, Lethbridge (9,836) and Moncton (9,168) round out the top three most crime-ridden cities in the country.
Kelowna recorded the second-highest rate of violent crime per 100,000 residents in Canada since 1980 – an 11 per cent year-over-year increase – second only to Thunder Bay with 2,134. The country’s violent crime rate fell seven per cent last year to 1,323. 100,000.
The police-reported crime rate measures only the volume of crime and does not account for the seriousness of each case. The Crime Severity Index measures the overall severity of crime, giving more weight to significant crimes.
Kelowna has the second highest crime severity index in the country at 122.3, a seven percent increase from the previous year. Kelowna trailed only Lethbridge, which reported a CSI of 128.7. Canada’s national CSI was calculated at 73.7.
Kelowna’s Violent Crime Severity Index, which leaves out property crime, ranks the region seventh worst behind cities like Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Sudbury and Saskatoon.
The region saw large increases in levels of motor vehicle theft (+21 percent), shoplifting (+32 percent) and making threats (+14 percent).
StatsCanada says the increase in Kelowna’s crime severity index is also due to an increase in child pornography, mischief and fraud. However, there was a decrease in the trafficking, production, import or export of methamphetamine, and identity fraud.
Kelowna also has the second highest rate of opioid-related crimes in Canada (116 per 100,000 population), trailing only Lethbridge (124) and well above Vancouver (45).
Kelowna’s crime wave bucks the provincial trend, with provincial statistics for the crime severity index (92.9) and crime rate (7,486) dropping five and four per cent respectively last year.
Castanet has requested comment from RCMP in Kelowna.
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