Shelburne’s crime rate down, clearance rate up

August 7, 2014 · 0 Comments

On July 23rd Statistics Canada released the 2013 Crime Severity Index and Clearance Rate Data for all police services in Canada. The report proved to be good news for the Shelburne Police Service. Shelburne’s crime rate decreased more last year than the provincial and national average, a report released by Statistics Canada revealed. The Shelburne Police Service crime severity index, which gives more weight to some crime than others dropped 32.7 per cent, compared with an 11 per cent drop for Ontario and a 9 per cent drop in the national average.

“The weighted clearance rate provides a more meaningful and comparative measure of clearance rates among police services,” said Chief Moore. “It gives police credit for cleared cases but also rates the severity of the crime solved”.

Violent crimes, which are crimes that involve a victim, decreased by 35.8 per cent from 2012 and non-violent crimes such as mischief’s and thefts decreased by 31.0 per cent. In 2013, Shelburne Police reported a weighted “clearance rate” of 74.6 per cent with the national average being 40.60 per cent. The Shelburne Police Service also reported a violent crime “clearance rate” of 100 per cent and a non-violent crime “clearance rate” of 58.1 per cent. The national average for violent crime and non-violent crime was 62.40 per cent and 31.84 per cent. Chief Moore explained that the National police-reported crime rate which measures the volume of crime per 100,000 population, continued to decline in 2013, down 9 per cent from 2012. After peaking in 1991, the police-reported crime rate has generally declined and, in 2013, it reached its lowest level since 1972.

“I am very pleased to see the significant decrease in crime in our community,” said Chief Moore. “Over the last several years we have put a lot of emphasis on crime prevention in order to reduce and deter crime. We are also solving more crime which also has a huge impact on deterring crime”.

Along with crime prevention strategies and high solve rates Chief Moore maintains that high visibility and knowing your community play a significant role in decreasing crime.

“We are also very fortunate to have a supportive community who each year works along with us to prevent and solve crime.”