FILE PHOTO: Police cordoned off a housing complex at Comox Street and Creston Avenue Wednesday, April 26 in Penticton.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

It was a slightly better picture for crime in the Thompson-Okanagan last year, according to Statistics Canada.

The latest crime severity index, which measures the volume and severity of crime in communities across the country, shows an overall slow down in Vernon, Kelowna and Kamloops in 2017, compared to 2016.

While that’s good news, the communities are all still well above the B.C. crime severity average, which was 88.93 in 2017, up from 93.69 in 2016. And while non-violent crime dropped in several communities, the measure of violent crime was up in Penticton, Vernon and Kelowna. 

In Vernon, the crime severity index decreased to 133.55, down from 156.85 in 2016. The index is calculated by assigning a weight to each type of violation. The more serious the offence, the higher the weight. The total number is then divided by the population. It’s important to note that the crime severity index is different from the crime rate, which is a measure of the volume of crime per 100,000 people.

In Kelowna, the crime severity index dropped to 111.67, down from 115.43 in 2016. In Kamloops, the number decreased to 124.05, down from 128.02 in 2016.

Penticton on the other hand saw an increase to 145.03, up from 141.21 in 2016. A main contributor was the spike in violent crime, which was up 17 per cent to 99.18, up from 84.63 in 2016.

The amount of violent crime was up in other cities too. It rose by just over four per cent Vernon in 2017 (118.69 vs. 113.60 in 2016) and by nearly six per cent in Kelowna (71.39 vs. 67.44 in 2016). It was down slightly by 1.5 per cent in Kamloops, sitting at 97.54 last year compared to 99.03 in 2016.

The lower overall crime severity indexes in Vernon, Kelowna and Kamloops are likely due in large part to major reductions in non-violent crimes. In Vernon, the non-violent crime severity index dropped by nearly 20 per cent. In Kelowna, it dropped by almost five per cent and in Kamloops by roughly three-and-a-half per cent. In Penticton, it was down less than one per cent.

The national crime severity index rose by two per cent in 2017, most notably due to an increase in the rate of police-reported sexual assaults, possession of stolen property, motor vehicle theft and homicide.

You can search for the crime severity index in smaller communities in the Thompson-Okanagan here. 

To contact a reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston or call 250-309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2018