The stabbing death of a man in Prince Albert's riverbank area was among the city's nine homicides in 2022. (File photo/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Crime

Prince Albert ranked third for violent crime in national report

Jul 27, 2023 | 5:00 PM

For the second year in a row, the City of Prince Albert was the third most violent city in Canada among communities with populations over 10,000.

That’s according to Statistics Canada’s most recent Crime Severity Index (CSI) report, which was published on Thursday.

Finishing ahead of Prince Albert were North Battleford (2) and Thompson, Manitoba (1).

When looking closer at the numbers for violent crimes, there was an 18 per cent increase in the CSI from 2021 to 2022. Among the key contributors were homicides (9), assaults (1,328), robberies (148) and sexual assaults level one (86). This trend also falls in line with what was occurring nationally.

For non-violent crimes committed Prince Albert ranked 8th, an increase from 12th in 2021 and includes property crimes and drug possession charges. While there was a nearly 46 per cent drop in reported break-ins to garages and sheds, there were 229 incidents related to residential break-ins, representing a 55 per cent increase from 2021.

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There were 250 reported vehicle thefts in 2022, as well as 250 fraud-related complaints.

The annual rankings use police-reported data to compare the severity of crime and violent crime in roughly 300 communities with populations over 10,000. The comparison is based on the ratio of crime versus the core population for a community, as opposed to the totality of crime in communities. Prince Albert’s crime stats for 2022 are based on a population of 37,396.

For overall crime severity, Prince Albert was ranked fifth behind Yellowknife, Wetaskiwin, Thompson and North Battleford (1).

(File photo/ paNOW Staff)

paNOW did reach out Thursday to the Prince Albert Police Service for comment, however, no one was available by the publishing deadline.

However, in years past when the annual rankings are released, the Prince Albert Police Service reviews the data to determine what factors may lead to crime in the community such as addictions, poverty, and mental health concerns.

The police service also tracks daily trends and statistics and uses them to initiate targeted enforcement on combatting weapons violence, drugs and property crime among other areas.

As the numbers from Stats Canada are from 2022, a number of initiatives have already been undertaken to address the problem areas.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell