Lynn Lau and Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 27/01) - Crime rates in the Northwest Territories and across the country are down, according to Statistics Canada.

Between 1998 and 1999, the overall crime rate fell by four per cent in the Northwest Territories and by five per cent across the nation.

Staff Sgt. Terry Scott

Nevertheless, the territorial crime rate of 24,040 crimes per 100,000 people, was the highest in the country, more than three times the national average of 7.73 per 100,000.

The population of the Northwest Territories is 42,000, but the crime rate is adjusted to reflect the rate per 100,000 for easier comparison to other jurisdictions.

The Statistics Canada report, released July 18, cited possible explanations for the drop in crime, such as "an aging population, healthy economy, and new approaches to both preventing and solving crimes."

The report included rates for violent crime such as murders and sexual assaults, property crimes, including vehicle theft and break and enters, along with other Criminal Code offences such as prostitution and arson.

The figures do not include non-criminal traffic offences.

Nationally, the only offences that increased in recent years were drug offences, which are up 32 per cent since 1993, and breach of the peace offences, such as causing a disturbance, which rose 31 per cent since 1995.

Youth crime also dropped between 1998 and 1999, but overall, the youth violent crime rate was still 40 per cent higher in 1999 than it was in 1989. During the 10-year period, female youth violent crime was up 81 per cent and violent crime by male youth was up by over 30 per cent, although the rate was still nearly three times higher than the female rate.

In Yellowknife, recent figures from the RCMP city detachment suggest that crime has also dropped compared to last year.

The number of break and enters, for example, dropped from 29 last year to nine this year, said Staff Sgt. Terry Scott of the Yellowknife RCMP.

He said the decreases may have something to do with having more officers on the streets. Last year at this time, the detachment was seven constables short. But in the last five months, staffing has increased to the full complement of 24 constables, with more capacity to pound the streets at bar-closing and round up more intoxicated people before they get into trouble.

"Our assaults in June were down significantly, and so were our break and enters. It could have been our extra activities taking drunks off the road and taking care of them -- but it's only one month. It's really not enough to say there's a trend developing."