Crime rate sees small jump
Fluctuations common in city statistics from year to year
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Friday, July 29, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
There was a seven-per-cent increase in the crime rate last year in the area served by Yellowknife RCMP compared to a territory-wide increase of 1.26 per cent, data released by Statistics Canada last week indicates.
Yellowknife RCMP detachment commander Insp. Matt Peggs says the city remains a safe place despite recent fluctuations in the crime rate. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo |
However, the crime rate in the city tends to fluctuate year-to-year. The small increase in 2015 came after a 6.82 drop in the crime rate the year before and a 4.72 per cent increase before that.
RCMP Insp. Matt Peggs, the Yellowknife detachment commander, said he's taken a look at he city's figures.
"It does seem to fluctuate from year to year," Peggs said in an interview Wednesday.
"We're a city of twenty-some thousand people," he said later in the interview. "A few of these crimes can result in a spike in the rate.
That's also something Lydia Bardak, executive director of the John Howard Society in Yellowknife, emphasized.
The data released by the national statistics agency each year is based on police-reported crime from across the country, which can be examined based on cities or by police service.
For the most part, crime across the country has been on a downward trend for two decades. The past year broke that trend, largely in Western Canada as the number of property crimes climbed.
The crime rate compares the number of crimes to the population. For Yellowknife, there were 8,070 incidents of police-reported crime last year, resulting in a crime rate of 38,647.57 per 100,000 people.
The incidents of crime resulting in 611 people, largely adults, facing criminal charges. It's up from 7,497 incidents in 2014 that resulted in 602 people facing charges. The data does not include information about the outcomes of those charges.
Some of the notable crimes last year, some of which have yet to be proven in court, include a drive-by shooting between the Fraser Arms apartments and subsequent car chase, stolen guns, crackdowns on the 856 gang and other drug traffickers, the Lanky Court murder of Elvis Lafferty and murder of Archie Paulette in Ndilo.
Bardak noted that she's noticed a decline in the number of youth going through the justice system. In 2011, 78 youth were charged. That's dropped over five years to 29.
There's a need to balance enforcement with preventative measures, such as sports and healing programs, to give youth things to do, she said.
 | Increase in crime deemed severe | 
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Statistics Canada also releases an analysis of the crime data that takes into account the severity of the incidents.
Called the Crime Severity Index (CSI), it gives a higher weight to more serious crimes like homicides than to things like property crimes. The city has among the highest CSI of any community across the country.
Yellowknife had a CSI of 234.50 last year, up 18.36 per cent from the year before. That follows a 13.39 per cent decline in the CSI between 2013 and 2014.
However, caution should be used when looking at the figures as only small changes in the number of actual crimes can lead to significant swings in the index and crime rate.
"Last year we had two murders I believe, which is the most severe crime which gets weighted more which can mean we have a large increase there," Peggs said.
There can be an actual increase in crime but also enforcement activity can drive up the figures.
For example, Peggs pointed out that there was an increase in cocaine trafficking.
"Which you can attribute to the fact that we had a pretty good enforcement year last year when it came to cocaine trafficking," he said.
Bardak agreed.
"The police put a lot of emphasis on that particular activity that was going on. And they were successful and it resulted in more arrests," she said.
The violent Crime Severity Index continued to be highest in the NWT compared to the rest of the country and increased 28 per cent over the previous year, driven by homicides, assaults and sexual assaults. Yukon and Nunavut saw declines in the violent Crime Severity Index.
Overall, Peggs considers the city to be a safe place.
"I live here. My wife and my kids live here and I think it is," he said.
In Yellowknife, 2015 saw increases in homicides (from one in 2014 to two), attempted murder (from one to three), sexual assaults against children (one to eight), assaults of varying degrees of severity (352 to 478), robbery (six to eight), uttering threats (98 to 127), break and entering (100 to 143), theft of a vehicle (71 to 74), theft over $5,000 (eight to 16), fraud (66 to 84), mischief (3,097 to 3,451), weapons violations (nine to 18), and disturbing the peace (2,413 to 2,523).
Decreases were logged in sexual assaults of all levels of severity (from 37 to 31), assaults against a police officer (12 to six), harassment (31 to 26), possession of stolen property (15 to seven), theft under $5,000 (433 to 424), arson (seven to four), prostitution (two to zero), impaired operation of motor vehicle, vessel or aircraft (165 to 57), and driving while prohibited (12 to seven).
