Stats put lie to crime fears

By Andrew Hanon, Edmonton Sun

 

 

“I believe,” Chief Mike Boyd bold the Edmonton Police Commission on Jan. 21, “Edmontonians should feel safer because there is a decrease in overall crime in the city.”

 

But in all likelihood, we don’t. Boyd told the commission that in 2009, crime in the city dropped 2%, which means that over the last four years we’ve seen a staggering 26% reduction.

 

These figures are based on Boyd’s eight “crime indicators,” or categories of offences that he uses to gauge police success.

 

They are: homicide, robbery, sexual assault, assault, break and enter, motor vehicle theft, theft from autos and other thefts over $5,000.

 

Homicides, the category that’s most symbolic of how safe a city is , dropped from 35 in 2008 to 27 in 2009, a 23% decline. Boyd told the commission auto thefts dropped 11% in 2009, or 27% over the past two years.

 

Thefts under $5,000 went down 20% last year, while thefts from vehicles were reduced by 13%.

In December, Boyd said in an interview that the only two indicators to increase were assault and sexual assault.

 

While no one wants to minimize the horror of sexual assaults, it’s important to note that they make up less than 2% of the total number of offences in the city.

 

In fact, crime has been steadily dropping across the country.

 

You’d think, with all this good news, we’d be celebrating that Edmonton is becoming a whole a lot safer.

 

But that’s not likely the case. A survey conducted last spring by Angus Reid shows that Canadians — and Albertans in particular — love the Harper Tories’ tough-on-crime agenda, which suggests that we’re still worried and want a crackdown on out-of-control criminals.

 

The survey found 79% of Albertans supported the federal proposal to scrap the so-called “faint-hope clause” that gave murderers who behaved in jail a chance at early release.

 

An even higher figure, 90%, agreed with the proposal to list all sex offenders in a national registry, instead of giving judges the discretion to decide who’s registered.

 

Albertans lead the way on mandatory minimum sentences, with 84% supporting the idea, well above the national average of 61%.

 

We’re also the most supportive province of the federal proposal to do away with conditional sentences for certain offences, like robbery and arson, where no one is injured.

 

Presently, people sentenced to less than two years for so called “non-personal injury” crimes can serve their time under house arrest, but 81% of Albertans feel they should all do jail time.

 

So why the disconnect?

 

Why, if things are getting better on the street, do so many of us feel a crackdown is necessary?

 

Critics of the Harper Tories suggest they’re manipulating the public’s fear of crime, whipping up a sense of urgency when there’s no rational reason for it.

 

Some of their proposed measures, particularly those aimed at keeping violent, repeat offenders behind bars longer, are sound.

 

Others, like mandatory minimums, will do nothing to reduce crime and end up costing society more because we’ll have to build more prisons.

 

Should we be tough on crime? Of course. The justice system has plenty of flaws that need to be fixed. But let’s keep it in perspective: Edmonton — and all of Canada, for that matter — is, by and large, a safe, orderly place.

 

andrew.hanon@sunmedia.ca