How long has crime been a problem in Prince George?
In 2019, Prince George saw a 60.6 percent increase in criminal code offenses and a nearly 55 percent increase in drug offenses, despite cannabis becoming legal in 2018.
Part 2 of an ongoing series
Prince George saw a nearly 80 percent increase in violent crime in 2019, data from Statistics Canada and the Department of Public Safety show, and while crime in Prince George has declined since then, it has not returned to pre-2019 levels.
The City of Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index increased from 169.2 in 2018 to 250.16 in 2019. The Crime Severity Index ranks the amount and severity of crime in a community on a per capita basis against an average of 100 .
According to the British Columbia Department of Public Safety and Attorney General, 11,849 criminal code offenses and 714 drug offenses were reported in Prince George in 2018.
In 2019, 19,037 criminal code offenses (up 60.6 percent over a year) and 1,106 drug offenses (up nearly 55 percent over a year, despite cannabis becoming legal in October 2018) were committed in the city.
Of the 19,037 criminal offenses committed in Prince George in 2019, 3,145 were violent crimes (including three homicides) and 10,550 property crimes (including 431 motor vehicle thefts). The remaining 5,342 Penal Code offenses were classified as “Other Offenses” including disturbance of the peace, probation violations, etc. Violent crimes increased by 79 percent compared to 2018 and property crimes increased by 58 percent compared to 2018.
In 2020, the city recorded 18,237 criminal code offenses (3,071 violent offenses including one murder, 10,081 property offenses, 5,085 others) and 775 drug offenses. The city’s Crime Severity Index for the year was 227.03.
In 2021, the city had 17,016 criminal code offenses (2,813 violent offenses, including six homicides, 10,000 property offenses, 4,293 others) and 506 drug offenses. The city’s Crime Severity Index for 2021 was 223.92.
From 2012 to 2018, the number of criminal code offenses in the city ranged from 10,229 in 2014 to 11,849 in 2018.
A Citizen analysis of 24 years of data, from 1998 to 2021, shows that crime across BC began to decline in the early 2000s and leveled off at a new, lower level between 2013 and 2014 (with a small increase in the year 2019).
Prince George followed the general trend in the province until 2015. After the city peaked in 2003 with a Crime Severity Index score of 247, the city experienced a downward trend in index scores, reaching a low of 129.4 in 2014.
From 2015 to 2018, Prince George’s Crime Severity Index rose steadily each year, reaching 169.2 in 2018. In 2019, crime in Prince George skyrocketed.
DIFFERENT CITIES, DIFFERENT PATHS
In a previous story, the Citizen reported that Prince George has the highest average Crime Severity Index among BC’s 20 largest communities, based on 24 years of data from Statistics Canada from 1998 to 2021.
Prince George took first place with an average index score of 191.36, ahead of Victoria (176.03), Vancouver (148.95), Chilliwack (148.19) and New Westminster (144.17). But while all five cities were high-crime jurisdictions in the late ’90s and early 2000s, Vancouver and New Westminister are both above-average safe cities today. While Chiliwack and Victoria both had crime spikes in 2019 and 2020, neither are as high as they were in the early 2000s.
Among 10 communities of similar size, the City of Prince George compares its wages, council allowances and taxes to – Victoria, Kelowna, Chilliwack, Kamloops, Naniamo, Delta, Coquitlam, Township of Langley and the districts of Saanich and North Vancouver – Prince George has had the since 2010 highest Crime Severity Index.
Among communities of 5,000 or more in northern and central BC, Prince George has a crime rate similar to that of Quesnel and Williams Lake. Prince Rupert, Terrace, Kitimat, Smithers, Fort St. John, and Dawson Creek have all seen increases in crime from around 2017, but not on the scale seen in the Cariboo region.
