The 2014 Crime Severity Index for Canadian cities with a population over 10,000 has been released by Statistics Canada.
The efforts of the members of the Battlefords detachment and community partners are reflected in the reduction in the 2014 CSI for North Battleford. While more work is needed, North Battleford has seen a significant decline in all three CSI categories that exceeds the overall decline seen nationally and provincially.
The top factors that influenced our rating for non-violent crime this year were mischief and breaking and entering. North Battleford has high mischief activity and while many of these are related to vandalism the tabulation of this statistic also includes the police response to calls related to intoxicated persons both in and out of residences. Additionally, a significant number of calls for service at the Battlefords detachment involve individuals with addictions or mental health concerns. The response to these issues is not a problem that can be solved by the police alone and requires a concentrated, multi-agency response with a long-term strategy.
The RCMP is working with community partners and is committed to working with all agencies to find solutions to these issues. Programs such as Crime Free Housing and Community Safety Audits currently underway will help address property crimes such as breaking and entering. There is no short-term fix for these challenges. However, work started now will pay dividends in future years.
The top influencing factors contributing to our violent CSI in 2014 were robberies, discharging of firearms and assaults, which decreased by 22 per cent. These crimes are a direct police responsibility and the Battlefords Detachment has prepared a long-term strategy to address these issues.
Crime analysis is key to the implementation of an intelligence-led policing model. Intelligence-led policing is a business model and managerial philosophy where data analysis and crime intelligence are pivotal to an objective, decision-making framework that facilitates crime and problem reduction, disruption and prevention through strategic management and effective enforcement strategies that targets both prolific and serious offenders and the development of an understanding of crimes influenced by social issues such as drug and alcohol addictions.
In the past year, the realignment and work done within the Detachment to streamline our processes and improve our policing response are paying dividends as exhibited by the downward trend in CSI numbers. The proposed policing plan will be instrumental in moving to an intelligence-led policing model and for the start of a policing team to move the City of North Battleford from its long standing ranking at the top of the Crime Severity Index.
Armed with a sound policing plan, our commitment to work with other organizations such as the City of North Battleford, Health Care, Social Services and Mental Health professionals, to assist those with addictions and mental health issues, the Battlefords Detachment remains committed to professional service delivery and a continued effort to reduce crime and address social issues in the City of North Battleford.
CSI Background
The Crime Severity Index is a measure of police-reported crime that reflects the relative seriousness of individual offences and tracks changes in crime severity.
For the Crime Severity Index, each crime is assigned a weight depending on its seriousness and as such, serious crimes have more impact on fluctuations in the Index. For instance, weights used in the Crime Severity Index range from six for gaming and betting to over 7,000 for murder.
The seriousness of each offence is determined by using objective sentencing data from the nation’s courts. Each individual offence is “weighted” according to the severity of the sentences handed down by judges. Sentencing data come from Statistics Canada’s Adult and Youth Courts Surveys. Weights for the index are based on the average of five years of courts sentencing data and they are updated every five years, using the most recent data available from the courts.
