Is Vancouver the safest city in Canada?

Not yet, according to a staff report from the Vancouver Police Department’s planning, research and audit section that goes before the Vancouver Police Board today (June 15).

Based on data from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, a division of Statistics Canada, Vancouver is “in the middle of the pack” when compared to nine other cities, including Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

“However, the VPD has made significant progress towards achieving its commitment based on an analysis of the change in crime rates between 1999 to 2009 and 2004 to 2009,” wrote Drazen Manojlovic, the director of the VPD’s planning, research and audit section.

In a category defined as “the total crime rate,” which is a totaling of all types of crime, the VPD recorded a 33 per cent decrease between the end of 2004 and the end of 2009.

When the data stretches back to 1999, the city actually saw a higher decrease in the total crime rate at 44 per cent. Calgary ranked second at 34 per cent, Regina was third at 30 per cent while Ottawa (29 per cent) and Toronto (28 per cent) rounded out the top five cities.

Vancouver, which has a population of close to 600,000 people, recorded a total crime rate in 2009 that worked out to about 80 incidents per 1,000 people.

A big reason for Vancouver’s decrease in the total crime rate was the significant drop in property crime offences—the department’s top priority in its five-year strategic plan. Data recorded between 1999 and 2009 shows a 41 per cent decrease in the city’s property crime rate.

The VPD has pointed to its chronic offenders program, where a dedicated Crown prosecutor works with investigators to concentrate on the city’s worst property crime criminals, as a reason for the decrease.

Other initiatives include the department’s identity theft task force, patrol-based surveillance teams that target property crime offenders and a unique computer program linked to pawn shops and second hand stores that assists with the tracking and recovery of stolen goods.

The decrease in violent crime has not been as dramatic, with Vancouver seeing only a seven per cent drop from 1999 to 2009. Toronto tied with Vancouver in this category. Ottawa saw the biggest decrease at 31 per cent, Ontario’s Peel Region placed second at 24 per cent and Calgary’s violent crime rate dropped by 23 per cent.

Since last year, the VPD has ramped up its efforts to reduce violent crime in the Downtown Eastside—the worst area of the city for such crime—particularly against women. The department has held a series of public meetings in the community and launched Sisterwatch, a campaign to combat violence against women.

Still, the Downtown Eastside remains violent with a spate of stabbings and violent assaults this year resulting in homicides in Oppenheimer Park and at the northeast corner of Carrall and East Hastings streets.

Driving the violent crime across the city are assaults and sexual offences, according to the VPD’s statistics for the first months of 2011. Compared to the first four months of 2010, sexual offences are up 36 per cent and assaults by 14 per cent.

“Public safety will always be our number one priority and will guide our decisions and policies,” Police Chief Jim Chu wrote in the VPD’s 2008-2012 Strategic Plan. “Vancouver residents deserve to live in a city where they feel safe to walk anywhere at any time without threat or fear. Our children deserve safe playgrounds without bullies or discarded needles. Homeowners should be able to sleep at night, secure and without worry.”

The VPD is in the final stages of preparing a revised strategic plan that will go into effect in January 2012.

mhowell@vancourier.com

Twitter: @Howellings