By paNOW Staff

Crime severity in Prince Albert by the numbers

Jul 23, 2015 | 6:43 AM

According to a report released from Stats Canada, overall crime in Prince Albert was up 12 per cent in 2014 compared to 2013.

The report shows Prince Albert’s violent crime was up eight per cent year over year.

The national crime severity index measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime by province and location.

Prince Albert Police Chief Troy Cooper said, “what we look for instead is our ranking within the province and in western Canada, to make sure we are doing as much as we can with the resources we have.”

Cooper said he prefers to focus on trends, and one area city police has seen a jump in is domestic violence and assaults. He hopes a new project focusing on the issue can help drive down the numbers.

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“Violence is typically driven by alcohol. The community has a new alcohol strategy we strongly support. We’re doing our best to make sure alcohol is consumed responsibly.”

How does the province stack up?

Saskatchewan, however leads all provinces in both crime rate and the Crime Severity Index (CSI) rankings.

The silver lining is year-over-year, both of those categories are dropping province wide. The report highlights that one of the main reasons CSI is falling is because of a decrease in police-reported incidents of trafficking, and production or distribution of cocaine.

The province’s two largest cities didn’t fare so great in this report.

Saskatoon leads all Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) in crime rate and CSI, driven primarily by an increase in breaking and entering, snatching the delinquency crown away from the Queen City, which has consistently been at the top of that category.

Regina is right behind the Bridge City in both crime rate and CSI. However, Regina continues to see a decrease in crime, while Saskatoon is actually seeing an increase from 2013 to 2014.

Nationally, crime and how severe it is continues to decline for the 11 consecutive year. Canada had the lowest CSI since the stat began being tracked in 1998. However, the number of police-reported child pornography cases rose 41 per cent. Terrorism cases went up 39 per cent.

panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow