229720
229719
Kelowna  

Kelowna had second highest crime rate in all of Canada in 2020

2nd highest crime rate again

While crime rates across Canada fell in 2020 largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelowna still has the second highest crime rate in all of Canada, along with the third highest violent crime rate.

New data released this week by Statistics Canada shows Kelowna's police-reported crime rate followed the national average by dropping 10 per cent compared to 2019, to 9,665 incidents per 100,000 people. But despite this drop, the Kelowna census metropolitan area still hold the second highest police-reported crime rate in Canada, next to only Lethbridge with 10,697 incidents per 100,000 people.

Perhaps more concerning is the rising violent crime rate in the Kelowna area. Remaining the third highest in the country, Kelowna's violent crime rate jumped 12 per cent from 2019, to 1,721 violent incidents per 100,000 people. This puts Kelowna behind only Lethbridge and Moncton.

Kelowna's crime severity index, a metric that takes into account the volume and severity of crimes in a region, was also the third highest in the country.

Additionally, Kelowna once again boasts the highest rate of opioid-related offences of any region in the country, by a long shot. Jumping 67 per cent from 2019, Kelowna saw 208 opioid-related offences per 100,000 people last year, more than doubling the rate of second place Lethbridge (97), and more than four times the rate of third place Vancouver (43).

“Opioid-related offences were the only specific drug type to experience an increase in 2020 compared to 2019,” Stats Canada said in its recent release, increasing by 34 per cent.

“In terms of opioid-related deaths, Western Canada continues to be the most impacted region of the country since 2016, but rates have begun to increase in other areas as well, notably in Ontario.”

With many people staying home for many months of the past year, the pandemic had a profound impact on crime across the country. April 2020 saw an 18 per cent reduction in police-reported crime compared to April 2019, and throughout the entire year, the property crime rate fell by 13 per cent across the country.

But despite the overall declining crime rate, there were 56 more homicides in Canada last year compared to 2019, an increase of seven per cent. Twenty-two of the nation's 743 homicides last year occurred during the April mass shooting incident in Nova Scotia – the deadliest mass shooting in Canada's history.

There were three homicides in the Kelowna area in 2020, up from just one in 2019.

The year also saw a marked increase in police-reported hate crimes. Hate crimes targeting East or Southeast Asian people rose 301 per cent, while incidents of hate against Indigenous people rose by 152 per cent.



More Kelowna News

229439
232645
RECENT STORIES
Castanet Classifieds

228841


226578


228921
218881


Kamloops SPCA Featured Pet

Astro
Astro Kamloops SPCA >




231864


Recent Trending
Castanet Proud Member of RTNDA Canada
233351