Community Safety Director Darren Caul told a Kelowna Chamber event Thursday (June 29), that there is a role for everyone in reducing crime.
“There is a role for the public, there is a role for all orders of government and for businesses. If we all do our part, we can make a difference.”
Caul said the current state of crime in Kelowna is too often summed up in one line based on the Crime Severity Index provided by Statistics Canada each summer.
“Consequently it presents a very skewed, unfair picture of our city.”
The CSI is given too much weight and attention, Caul added.
“I can tell you that the report, which is coming out this summer, based on that 2022 data before we started a series of improvements, will, unfortunately, read similar to the headlines of last year.”
READ MORE: Kelowna had Canada’s highest crime rate in 2021
Caul pointed out that the CSI doesn’t take into account the approximately two million visitors that come to the region every year.
The Kelowna Central Metropolitan Area (CMA) sees about 10 times more visitors than its base population every year than most of the 36 other CMAs the region is compared to.
“If someone is visiting from Vancouver and their car is broken into, that incident is reported in Kelowna. At the end of the year, the number of incidents are totalled and divided by our region’s base population.”
Caul said this is not about blaming tourists for crime.
“The basic math takes a wildly skewed picture of our region.”
Caul said the crime rate did rise rapidly between summer 2021 and fall 2022 from COVID-19 pandemic lows.
“It was your experience, and our collective, frustration that resulted in us leading the province on a significant advocacy agenda around prolific property offenders.”
READ MORE: Province setting up 12 ‘hubs’ around B.C. dedicated to targeting repeat violent offenders
The other important issue, Caul noted, is that the CSI is not reflective of the city alone, but the CMA (Lake Country to Peachland).
“It shouldn’t be used to compare us to other cities,” he added. “In fact, there are 13 other cities in B.C. alone with higher crime rates.”
Caul said there are crime issues in Kelowna, but suggested the report (CSI) and ensuing headlines present an alarmist picture.
”One that’s troublesome for our city’s reputation, troublesome for business, and our citizens’ sense of safety.”
READ MORE: Crime, safety, affordable housing and other priorities endorsed by Kelowna council
There are several resources on the City of Kelowna and RCMP websites that residents can utilize in helping to report and reduce crime.
“Those are the simple things that will have a massive impact by just reducing the everyday opportunities for criminals to act,” said Caul.
@GaryBarnes109
gary.barnes@kelownacapnews.com
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