The Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) is pleased to announce that Halton region has maintained its position of having the lowest Crime Severity Index (CSI) of all Canadian municipalities with a population of 100,000 or more. In comparison to Ontario’s ‘Big 12’ police services, the HRPS also achieved the highest Weighted Clearance Rate (WCR) at 48.70 per cent.
This data is reported in Statistics Canada’s annual report on crime in Canada. The report provides a detailed overview of crime statistics as reported by police services across the country.
When compared to Ontario’s ‘Big 12’ police services, Halton had:
The lowest CSI (24 years in a row);
The lowest Violent CSI (24 years in a row);
The lowest Non-Violent CSI (24 years in a row);
The highest value WCR (8 years in a row);
The highest value Violent WCR (4 years in a row);
The highest value Non-Violent WCR (8 years in a row).
“As Chief of Police, I am so proud of the tremendous work that our 1000+ members do each and every day to protect and serve the Halton community. Annually, Statistics Canada’s national crime data affirms the positive impact of this work. Halton region continues to rank as the safest large municipality in all of Canada,” said Chief Stephen Tanner. “I would also like to thank our residents who work hand-in-hand with our Police Service, assisting in the solving of crimes and placing community safety as a top priority. These combined efforts continue to make Halton region an enviable place to work, live and play.”
“These results clearly illustrate the alignment and global effectiveness and efficiency of our dedicated officers and civilian staff. These results also reflect the essential partnership between our Community and its Police Service - these results can only be possible with a supportive community engaged proactively in crime prevention and actively cooperating with police investigations and other activities” said Halton Police Board Chair Jeff Knoll. “On behalf of the Halton Police Board, thank you and congratulations to all the dedicated and hard-working members of our police service and the entire community on this continued stalwart success. Working together we will continue to ensure Halton Region remains the safest large community in the Nation.”
Background
Each year, Statistics Canada reports on the number and type of criminal incidents coming to the attention of police. To facilitate comparisons among geographic areas as well as over time, police-reported crime has traditionally been expressed as a rate per 100,000 population. The traditional "crime rate" provides information on the number of police-reported incidents that have occurred for a given population, but does not provide information on the overall seriousness of crimes reported by police. For this reason, the Crime Severity Index (CSI) was developed.
The Crime Severity Index enables Canadians to track changes in the severity of police-reported crime from year to year. It does so by taking into account not only the change in volume of a particular crime, but also the relative seriousness of that crime in comparison to other crimes. The CSI helps answer such questions as: is the crime coming to the attention of police more or less serious than before; and, is police-reported crime in a given city or province more or less serious than in Canada overall?
The Weighted Clearance Rate is the proportion of reported crimes solved by police, factoring in the seriousness of individual offences. Weighted clearance rate is based on the same principles as the Police Reported Crime Severity Index (CSI), whereby more serious offences are assigned a higher 'weight' than less serious offences. For example, the clearing of homicides, robberies or break and enters would represent a greater contribution to the overall weighted clearance rate value than the clearing of minor theft, mischief or disturbing the peace.
For a more in-depth explanation of how these statistics are reported, please visit: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/subjects-start/crime_and_justice
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