The City is emphasizing to the public that crime in Williams Lake has dropped significantly.
The City’s remarks come following a recent Global BC story about MoneySense.ca rankings of Canadian cities and Williams Lake’s crime rate.
The story mentioned that Williams Lake was “the worst (Canadian) city for crime,” in the MoneySense.ca rankings, but the City says no further information or context was provided.
“This does not paint a fair or accurate reflection of crime in Williams Lake,” a news release from the City says.
The City says crime has dropped in every quarter for more than a year, with property crime seeing the most dramatic reductions.
In January this year, statistics showed that in 2010 there was an average decrease of thefts of vehicles of 34 per cent since 2009; a five-per cent decrease in mischief complaints; and a 36-per cent drop in robberies in the city.
Compared to 2008, those decreases are 71 per cent, 34 per cent, and six per cent, respectively.
There was also a 40 per cent decrease in break and enters in 2010 compared to 2008.
A comparison of the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2011 shows that trend continues:
• Stolen vehicles (cars/ trucks combined): from 55 to five, a drop of 91 per cent.
• Break and enters (residential and business): from 65 to 19, a drop of 71 per cent.
• Mischief (graffiti, broken windows, damage to cars): from 157 to 78, a drop of 50 per cent.
• Robbery: from seven to four, a drop of 43 per cent.
• Calls for Service: from 2,553 to 1,719, a drop of 33 per cent.
The City says 2008 is an appropriate benchmark, as crime statistics for that year were reflective of crime rates for the prior 10 years.
“We have had some great successes, but we are not out of the woods yet,” says Williams Lake RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Warren Brown. “We continue to work closely with the City, our volunteers, and our community partners to reduce crime even further.”
Mayor Kerry Cook says while Williams Lake was the crime capital of Canada, that is no longer the case.
“We’ve heard repeatedly that Williams Lake is a crime capital, and while that may have been true three years ago, it’s not true now,” Cook says.
“We have taken steps such as adding support to the RCMP detachment, engaging First Nations partners, and adding or modifying bylaws to help fight crime, and the numbers speak for themselves — the community is coming together to say enough is enough. We are taking our city back.”
Brown will present the complete first quarter crime statistics at the April 19 regular council meeting.