Vancouver police are recording 10-year highs in the number of thefts from vehicles and break-ins to businesses — increases that have meant the VPD will not reach its goal to reduce overall property crime this year.
Some of the spike in property crime is being attributed to criminals not known to Vancouver police who have moved to Vancouver from other parts of the country, particularly Alberta, according to Police Chief Adam Palmer.
“We’re seeing a huge number of new people coming to Vancouver — a lot from Alberta,” the chief told Vancouver Police Board members at a public meeting Oct. 20. “We know that the economy in Alberta is heading in the wrong direction and the B.C. economy is relatively stable, or doing OK by comparison. So there’s a lot of people relocating from that province coming here that are causing us all kinds of issues.”
Statistics for the first nine months of 2016 show there were 9,484 thefts from vehicles and 1,974 burglaries to businesses. Both crimes are occuring across Vancouver, although thefts are concentrated in the north half of the city and in the downtown core.
The good news for police and residents is break-ins to homes continue on a steady decline, with 1,587 in the first nine months of this year, a 10-year low in the city.
“That’s an area where we have put a lot of focus,” Palmer told the Courier after the meeting. “We’ve got some pretty innovative strategies in place for that. We haven’t made a big public release on all of the work we’re doing there yet. But we will and explain that in a little more detail in the coming months.”
Police measure overall property crime by calculating thefts from vehicles and break-ins to businesses and homes. A report to the police board said overall property crime has increased by 18.6 per cent in the first nine months of this year, compared to the previous year.
The VPD’s 2012-2016 Strategic Plan set a goal to reduce the property crime rate to 45 offences for every 1,000 people. That target reached 56.5 offences per 1,000 people last year. No ratio was provided for 2016 but the police board report said property crime increased four years in a row from 2011 to 2015.
Theft from vehicles reached 9,251 in 2007 for the same nine-month period but that type of crime slowly decreased over the next four years, reaching a low of 5,491 in 2011. The incidents shot up to 7,101 in 2014, then dipped to 6,810 last year, before reaching a 10-year high this year.
“A lot of these are crimes of opportunity,” said the chief, noting police still see people leaving phones and briefcases in vehicles. “So people will be walking down the street trying doors, they’ll be looking in cars. If they see anything of value, if they see some loonies and toonies and quarters in your cup holder or something, they’ll break into your car to steal that.”
Palmer said police continue to work on various projects, including public campaigns, to reduce property crime and educate residents how not to become a victim of crime. Police are expected to launch a new campaign in November to combat property crime.
Typically, the chief said, the crimes are connected to feeding a drug habit. As his predecessor Jim Chu said multiple times in his time as chief, Palmer said treatment on demand is needed to get drug-addicted criminals the help they need so they don’t have to resort to crime.
“We have a lot of great programs in place with Vancouver Coastal Health,” the chief said. “But the one gap that we do have is with treatment on demand. We don’t have a city where if somebody is addicted to drugs and they need help and they come forward to a police officer or just want to self-report and get help, they don’t have anywhere to go — and there’s long waiting lists.”
The number of break-ins to businesses this year — 1,974 — surpasses the 1,950 recorded in 2007. The 10-year-low for that type of crime occurred in 2012, with 1,209 burglaries. Then it began to climb in 2013 (1,303), 2014 (1,599) and 2015 (1,715) before reaching 1,974 this year.
“Sometimes it’s serial in nature, sometimes it’s one-offs, sometimes it’s people addicted to drugs,” said Palmer of the profile of the business burglars.
In other increases in crime, although not as significant as property crime statistics, the police board report shows there were 39 bank robberies in the first nine months of this year. There were 22 for the same period last year and 13 in 2014. Deputy Chief Laurence Rankin told the board that he attributed the spike in robberies to serial bank robbers recently released from prison. The 10-year high for bank robberies was recorded in 2008, with 136.
Shots fired incidents reached 18 this year, an increase over the seven calls police responded to last year and 16 in 2014. Rankin said the incidents have occurred mainly in the south slope area of the city and in the Downtown Eastside, where police are targeting the Redd Alert gang for a string of shootings, stabbings and assaults. The 10-year high for shots fired was 45 in 2007.
The number of homicides from January to September was nine, a drop from the 15 recorded last year for the same time period.
Though break-ins to homes are on the decline, the VPD issued a reminder this week to residents to lock their doors and windows after a resident found a naked man cooking eggs in his kitchen Oct. 18. Police said the man entered the home through an unlocked door.
The man ran off once the resident chased him out of the house. Police arrested a naked man a few blocks away. He is facing charges of mischief and break-and-enter. Police said one out of every three break-ins to homes shows no signs of forced entry and happen when someone enters through an unlocked or open door or window.
mhowell@vancourier.com
@Howellings
