Bonnyville has the highest violent crime rate under the Crime Severity Index (CSI) for the Eastern Alberta District, according to new RCMP statistics.
Bonnyville RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Luis Gandolfi presented the statistics to Town of Bonnyville council Tuesday and explained how crimes are weighted according to severity and given a numeric value by Statistics Canada.
He explained violent CSI involves crimes committed against people like assault or sexual assault, robbery, and murder.
Impaired driving also constitutes a violent crime, as it can result in injury or death.
“Unfortunately, we do have a lot of success pulling impaired drivers off the streets here,” Gandolfi explained after the council meeting.
“We're doing a fabulous job of that, but, unfortunately, it doesn't reflect well on our stats that we have that many impaired drivers in the vicinity.”
He pointed out Bonnyville also had the highest improvement rate over the last year in terms of Weighted Clearance Rate (WCR) at 30 per cent.
A higher WCR means the crimes are being cleared, either by laying charges, finding the suspect in consultation with the victim and not laying charges, or placing the perpetrator in an alternative judicial system as a result of the crime committed.
“I can't speak for all of the other ones, the ones that are benign, the ones that aren't the end of the world if we don't solve them – your spray paint, your broken window, your stolen bike,” he said.
“Those are all crimes, but they're not do-or-die crimes. They're not going to cause injury, death, or fatality. We're in the public safety business. In terms of the weighted clearance rate, we're doing a good job.
“If we don't solve 10 B&Es (break and enters), that's unfortunate,” he added. “But no one's going to die because we didn't solve 10 B&Es. If we don't resolve those other more important files, than somebody can be injured or killed.”
The statistics presented at council tracked CSI for both violent crimes and non-violent in the Eastern Alberta District, which stretches from the Northwest Territories border down to the Consort area, and then west to Tofield, including Fort McMurray, Athabasca, Viking, Vegreville, and Vermilion.
Bonnyville rated the highest for violent CSI, which only includes crimes that took place within the boundaries of the town, with St. Paul having the highest non-violent CSI. Crimes in the municipal districts are tracked separately, and Fort Chipewyan came in with the highest violent CSI in that category, as well as the highest non-violent CSI.
“I would suggest that (St. Paul) has greater challenges on a whole than Bonnyville,” Gandolfi said at the meeting, adding he was only speculating.
“I think we're busy for different reasons. Bonnyville's a booming little town with a thriving economy. We have issues with outsiders, impaired driving, violent situations in hotels, crews, and things like that. It's a different problem than they're dealing with in St. Paul. In their area, it's a problem with poverty.”
After the meeting, he said, “I know Bonnyville's a busy detachment. I wouldn't say that we're run off our feet, but we typically don't have much time to sit down for a coffee. It's a busy spot, there's a lot of things happening, especially when the economy's doing well, as it seems to be in this area.
“It's something that we have to keep an eye on. It doesn't mean that we don't have a safe community by any means.”
