RCMP Supt. Kara Triance.

Image Credit: Submitted/Kelowna RCMP

For the past two years Kelowna had the highest crime severity index of any major metropolitan area in Canada and 2023 stands a good chance of the city continuing that trend.

That’s because the city saw a 71% increase in child exploitation and sexual abuse material offences from 2022 to 2023.

Such increases have been happening across BC, Supt. Kara Triance, officer in charge of the Kelowna RCMP detachment, told city council during her presentation on 2023 crime stats today, March 11.

“The important factors to consider here is that there have been changes in technology that have allowed us to detect the hidden criminality and the images on a device or a screen as it relates to these images,” Triance said in explaining the increase.

While that technology makes it easier to detect, track and prosecute for things like distributing intimate photos, the wide accessibility of devices that can take and distribute those images also means it is easier for children to be exploited, she said.

“Those images that have been reported, the abuse that has been reported, has been photographed and left in existence and that material in itself causes another level of trauma for those individuals,” Triance said.

Last June, she told council that the city was likely to repeat its position as the major metropolitan area in the country with the highest crime severity index for the 2022 calendar year, and she was right.

At that time, she attributed much of the high ranking being due to the two million tourists who flock to the city each year and distort the data.

The index ranks all crimes as to severity. Since child exploitation and sexual abuse material offences carries a very high ranking, it will drive up the final numbers, although the final ranking will depend if other cities are similarly impacted.

READ MORE: Kelowna retains its crime capital of Canada title

While that is bad news for victims and the crime severity rankings, Triance did have some good news to report with a 44% decrease in business break-ins for the year, a 40% drop in bike thefts, 39% fewer auto thefts and thefts from vehicles were down 29%.

Police across the province have focused on repeat violent offenders in the past year and created a “hub” to zero in on them.

Kelowna has 40 “spots” in that hub but could do with more.

“We know the number of repeat offenders is exponentially higher than the number of spots allocated,” Triance said. “As of February, 68% of the offenders are in custody.”

Last year, 26 repeat offenders were involved in 300 files.

Triance is hoping another five spots will be allocated this year.

She did not explain what was meant by the term “spot.”

Assaults with a weapon and assaults causing bodily harm on the other hand were up 16%. Of those assaults, or threats of assault, with a weapon, bear spray was the weapon 28% of the time.

Bear spray is legal and can be easily bought and carried in areas where there might be bears but certainly not, for example, in downtown Kelowna, Triance said.

“Carrying bear spray for protection from anything other than a bear and using that as weaponry is a criminal offence,” she said. ‘If you’re seeing somebody carrying bear spray you can call the police.”

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