Kamloops, B.C., led Canada in reported crime rates for 2023
CBC
Kamloops, B.C., had Canada's highest crime rate in 2023 for communities with at least 100,000 people, though one expert says residents should "absolutely not" be alarmed.
Police reported 13,116 criminal incidents per 100,000 people in the fast-growing city located in the province's southern Interior. According to data released by Statistics Canada last week, the figure is a two per cent decrease from the 2022 rate, but it still led the country.
Kamloops also topped Canada's crime severity index (CSI) at 165.3 last year, a 10 per cent increase from 2022. Statistics Canada says the weighted number considers not only the volume of reported crimes but also their severity. The agency cautions that the data is not meant to be "used in isolation or as a universal indicator of an area's overall safety."
B.C.'s overall CSI for last year was 104.1. The provincial crime rate was 7,404 per 100,000 people.
Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson said the figures for his city are not surprising, but he's concerned that they are going to "scare people off."
"We can't keep pretending it's not happening, and we've got to deal with it," he said in an interview with CBC's Daybreak Kamloops, though adding that local police are "doing a great job."
Bryan Kinney, an associate professor at SFU's school of criminology, told CBC's Daybreak Kamloops that it shouldn't be a cause for alarm.
According to him, the western provinces tend to have higher crime rates relative to other population centres.
Kinney said that as communities — like Kamloops — approach the 100,000 population mark, they start to see more "big city" activities, such as more business investments, as well as more crimes.
"You may have big city issues, but tucked into a relatively small population," he said. "And so when you have a small population, small changes … will show an alarming jump in percentage."
Kamloops RCMP Superintendent Jeff Pelley made a similar argument, noting that Kamloops is one of the smallest cities included in the index at this population level.
"That's definitely a growing pain, but it's not a true reflection of our city being unsafe," he said.
Both Kinney and Pelley said that Kamloops' CSI is not driven by violent crimes.
Pelley said that police strategies currently focus on community engagement, increased visibility, rapid responses to incidents and operations targeting specific issues related to violent crimes, including monitoring high-risk individuals.