Violent crime may have shot up in Flin Flon last year, but levels were still far below those of northern Manitoba’s two other major centres.
The Pas and Thompson had violent crime rates that were 67 and 76 per cent higher, respectively, than those of Flin Flon in 2014, figures from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics show.
Flin Flon had a violent crime rate of 2,992 incidents per 100,000 people compared to rates of 4,990 and 5,270 in The Pas and Thompson.
Among the three communities, only Flin Flon saw violent crime increase in 2014, rising 46 per cent over 2013. Violent crime fell 18 and nine per cent in The Pas and Thompson.
As has been the case each year since The Reminder began monitoring annual crime statistics in 2005, both The Pas and Thompson had significantly higher overall crime rates than did
Flin Flon.
The Pas’s per-capita crime rate of 60,436 was 3.4 times higher than Flin Flon’s rate of 18,040. Thompson’s rate of 34,396 nearly doubled that of Flin Flon.
Property crime in The Pas (12,663) and Thompson (11,535) was 53 and 40 per cent higher than in Flin Flon (8,259).
But Flin Flon had the highest rate of break-and-enters (735 per capita, or 42 incidents). That was 20 per cent higher than in The Pas (590 per capita, or 33 incidents) and 42 per cent above the much larger Thompson (425 per capita, or 59 incidents).
Drug crimes were more than three times higher in The Pas (1,109) and more than four times higher in Thompson (1,456) than they were in Flin Flon (332).
Flin Flon RCMP cleared 73 per cent of their cases (750 of 1,031 crimes). That surpassed rates in both The Pas (71 per cent clearance, or 2,385 of 3,379 crimes) and Thompson (67 per cent clearance, or 3,173 of 4,771).
Also in 2014, Flin Flon RCMP charged 154 people, which amounted to 6.7 crimes per suspect. That was the same ratio as in The Pas, where police charged 501 people. Thompson RCMP charged 919 people, equal to 5.2 suspects per crime.
In past interviews, RCMP officers have called for context when comparing crime rates between the three communities.
As one point of discussion, Thompson, with a population of 13,123, has more than twice as many people as both Flin Flon (5,592) and The Pas (5,513).
The higher the population, the more potential for crime – and the more individuals around to report crime.
Flin Flon also has one RCMP member for every 466 residents, much lower than both The Pas (one per 162 residents) and Thompson (one per 222 residents). The more officers on the streets, it is said, the more crime they may find.
