Thompson is near the top of the list in terms of crime severity in Canadian communities, but statistics show the city’s rating is dwarfed by those of many smaller communities surrounding it.
Statistics Canada has released its police-reported Crime Severity Index (CSI) for 2014. CSI scores are calculated by assigning various crimes different weights based on seriousness as measured by each crime’s incarceration rate and average prison sentence.
In 2014, the five police services with the highest CSI in northern Manitoba were Leaf Rapids (615.28), Shamattawa (602.84), Pukatawagan (598.64), Chemawawin (552.66) and Grand Rapids (462.18).
By comparison, Thompson’s overall CSI was 212.2, third-highest in the country among cities with 10,000 or more people, behind North Battleford, Saskatchewan (274.53) and Williams Lake, BC (235.23).
Nationally, the CSI was 66.7 and decreased by three per cent, the 11th straight year the overall index score dropped. For Manitoba, the CSI was 95.89.
The violent crime severity index was also far beyond Thompson’s index score of 221.04 in Pukatawagan (1,175.73), Shamattawa (1,124.06), Chemawawin (1,005.59), Leaf Rapids (994.54) and Nelson House’s Nisichwayasihk Cree Nation (654.42). Manitoba’s violent crime severity index was 126.92.
Leaf Rapids had the highest non-violent crime severity index (475.99) followed by Shamattawa (411.93), Grand Rapids (398.15), Pukatawagan (387.41) and Chemawawin (386.70). Manitoba’s non-violent crime security index score was 84.40.
Despite being second in northern Manitoba in all three indices, Shamattawa’s 2014 scores were actually an improvement over the previous year, with all three scores down 24 per cent or more from 2013.
Conversely, the scores for Leaf Rapids were up drastically from the previous year, with the CSI going up 45.1 per cent, the violent crime severity index increasing by 58.03 per cent and the non-violent crime severity index increasing by 36.6 per cent from 2013.
When CSI scores are calculated, the weighted offences are added up and divided by population.
– Thompson Citizen
