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British Columbia - The Best Place on Earth -

Just ask our criminals…

By Gerry Wickstead

Author Gerry Wickstead has been a BC resident for the past 25 years and a municipal police officer for 19 years.

His opinions are not necessarily shared by his employer.

Will Public Safety ever become a Priority

Each year British Columbia has the worst record for clearing reported Crime with Criminal charges compared to the rest of Canada.  The BC government’s plan to hire an additional 215 police officers will be the biggest investment in new police resources in the past twenty years.  However, BC’s police per capita average will still be below the national average.

In 2003, those responsible for 477,097 reported crimes in British Columbia were never criminally charged. 

BC was 539 police officers below the national police per capital average.

BC has had the highest Property Crime rate for over 25 years in Canada and the highest Drug Crime rate for the past 20 years.

“Extra Officers Added”

Source: The Langley Advance News January 28, 2005 Page 10

 “More cops and more cash.  That’s what the provincial government pledged to deliver in an announcement made Monday.

 Premier Gordon Campbell said the province will add 215 RCMP officers in communities this year as part of a crime-fighting strategy that will see an additional $122 million invested in policing, corrections and courts over the next three years.  “British Columbians deserve to feel safe in their homes and in their communities,” Campbell said.  “Police and law enforcement personnel across B.C. do the best they can every day to fight crime and keep us safe.  But more resources are needed, and today we are responding.”

The new officers will be used as follows:  89 more police officers for serious and major crime; 14 for cyber-crime; 80 for rural communities and general policing; and 32 for First Nations communities.

“This is the biggest investment in new police officers for B.C. communities in over 20 years,”  said Solicitor General and Fort-Langley-Aldergrove MLA Rich Coleman. 

Property Crime- BC has highest rate in Canada for past 25 years

“Among the provinces, property crime rates tend to be lower in the East than in the West, and ranged in 2003 from 2,611 incidents per 100,000 population in Newfoundland and Labrador to 6,922 in British Columbia.  This is the fifteenth consecutive year that Newfoundland and Labrador has reported the lowest property crime rate while British Columbia has reported the highest rate for over 25 years."

Source: Statistics Canada (2003) – Catalogue no. 85-002, Volume 24, no.6 Page 9

Drug Crimes – BC has highest rate in Canada for over 20 years

“Among the provinces, drug crime rates ranged from 158 incidents per 100,000 population in Newfoundland and Labrador to 584 in British Columbia.  British Columbia has reported the highest rate of drug crimes for over 20 years.  In 2003, British Columbia was the only province to report an increase in its drug rate, up 6% from the previous year.”

Source: Statistics Canada (2003) – Catalogue no. 85-002, Volume 24, no.6 Page 13

Drug-related Homicide

“Of the 684 drug-related homicide incidents in Canada between 1992 and 2002, 19% occurred in Vancouver, 18% in Montreal and 12% in Toronto."   "Fully half of all homicide incidents in Canada involving heroin (52%) and more than one-fifth (22%) of cocaine-related homicides took place in Vancouver.”

Source: Statistics Canada – Catalogue no. 85-002-XPE, Volume 24, no.1

Trends in Drug Offences and the Role of Alcohol and Drugs in Crime

In 1962, the 26,129 police officers in all of Canada had 514,986 Criminal Incidents to investigate.

In 2003, the 7,106 police officers in BC had 558,182 Criminal Incidents to investigate.

Few Criminal are convicted of their crimes in BC

Each year the province of British Columbia consistently has the worst record for clearing reported crime with criminal charges.  For example, in 2003 only 14.5% of 558,182 reported crimes in this province were followed up with criminal charges.  The Canadian average was 23.6%.  According to Statistics Canada 81,085 criminal incidents were cleared by charge.  Those responsible for 477,097 reported criminal incidents weren’t even charged by police.

In reality, BC’s crime clearance rate is even lower than the 14.5% reported to Statistics Canada so caution must be used when comparing this province with the rest of Canada.  We are one of three provinces that have a Prosecutor-based justice system with a secondary level of charge assessment.  The police initially investigate the criminal incident reported and they then recommend criminal charges to Crown Counsel who then decide if criminal charges will continue on to court.  It is fairly common for Crown Counsel to drop criminal charges before the case even gets to Court.

Quebec and New Brunswick have a similar system with one big difference.   When Crown Counsel drops a criminal charge the charge rate reported to Statistics Canada is lowered to reflect the number of cases that were dropped.  British Columbia does not alter its internal records to reflect the charges dropped by Crown Counsel.

In 2002/03 a total of 52,451 criminal cases went before the Courts in British Columbia.  36% of the cases (18,847 cases) were stayed or the charges dropped and 55% of the cases were found guilty.  3% of the cases were found not guilty.

With these numbers we can approximate that those responsible for 92% of reported crime in BC during 2003 were never convicted of the offence.  Note Criminal Case decisions and Admissions to Custody reported to Statistics Canada work on a different calendar year than Crime reported by the police.

558,182 reported criminal incidents (2003)

81,085 criminal incidents cleared by charge (2003)

52,451 criminal cases before the courts  2002/03 (note: cases could include more that one criminal incident) 

28,926 criminal cases found Guilty 2002/03

8,740 admissions to Provincial Custody 2002/03  (admissions to Federal Custody not known)

3,545 Conditional sentences 2002/03

BC Prisons operating Below Capacity

In 2001/02 British Columbia reported a Provincial Prison capacity of 2,725 prisoners.  During that same time period BC reported an average daily inmate count of 1,400 in custody and 739 persons being held in Remand.  With a daily average of 2,139 people in custody.  It appears BC’s Provincial prisons were operating at 586 prisoners below capacity.

BC's Prisons have the 2nd highest daily inmate cost in Canada.

In 2001/02 British Columbia reported that the average daily inmate cost to house a person in a provincial jail was $181.56 a day.  This was $48.81 per day above Canada’s national average.  Compare this to $137.47 per day in Ontario, $116.79 in Quebec and $94.33 per day in Alberta. 

In 2001/02 BC spent $145 million for 803,548 total days stay compared to Quebec spending $150 million for 1,288,852 total days stay in Quebec prisons.

Police Levels below the National per capita average

According to Statistics Canada, between 1993 and 2003 the number of Police Officers in British Columbia had increased by 12.6%.  However the ratio of Police to Population had decreased by 3.1% during that same time period. 

In 2003 there were 7,106 police officers in this province.  An additional 215 officers would bring a 3% increase to police personnel bringing the per capita level back to 1993 standards.  This is still below Canada’s national police per capita average.  BC has a crime rate that is consistently 50% above Canada’s average and a charge rate half of the nation’s average.

Remember back in 2001…

RCMP’s B.C. head warns of ‘extreme restraints’

Source: THE VANCOUVER SUN September 20, 2001 by Chad Skelton and Lindsay Kines

“The head of the RCMP in B.C. has warned officers in an internal memo that “extreme budget restraints” imposed by the B.C.  Liberal government will affect the force’s “ability to respond to any unplanned events that may occur.”

The memo written by Assistant Commissioner Beverley Busson to all “E” Division officers, refers to the B.C. Liberal government ‘s decision to cap the RCMP’s annual provincial policing budget at $153.5 million.  That is slightly more than last year’s budget of $152 million, but about $10 million less than what the force says it needs.

Solicitor-General Rich Coleman said his government inherited the $153.5-million policing budget from the previous NDP government.  He said the RCMP came to him in August complaining of budget pressures.  “I asked them to look at their budget” to see where they could save money, Coleman said.  He said the force assured him it could save money without putting public safety at risk.  “I have every comfort level that they will do their job and are not compromising public safety by making these adjustments to their budget,” he said.

He added the costs of extra policing resulting from the terrorist attacks are a federal responsibility and not affected by the size of the provincial policing budget.

Busson’s memo outlines a series of immediate changes to policing services in order to protect “the safety of our members, our employees and our communities.”

The changes only affect provincial policing services – about 1,600 or 34 per cent, of all RCMP officers in the province.  Local policing, which the RCMP provides on a contract basis to municipalities, will not be affected.

The planned cuts include:

• A 23-per-cent cut in overtime budgets for the remaining half of the fiscal year, in order to reduce budgets for the whole year by 11 per cent 

• A $1.8-million reduction in the vehicle budget.

• A $1.52-million contingency fund has been eliminated reducing the ability to respond to unplanned events.  “Any RCMP response to an unplanned incident will have to be funded entirely by the province as the need occurs.”

• A $1.1-million cut in the budget for re-locating offices.  “Only cost-transfers that are urgently required for operational needs will be approved.”

• The operating budget for marine services – which includes interdiction of drug smugglers – will be cut by $200,000, “which will significantly impact our ability for proactive patrols.”

• A $128,000 training budget for traffic service officers has been eliminated, and the purchase of a $170,000 mobile command vehicle has been put on hold.

• Travel expenses will be cut by 11 per cent.

• An inter-agency drug meeting scheduled for last Monday was cancelled along with a planning session for officers scheduled for October.  Other training and planning sessions may be cut in the future.

• Officers will no longer be paid overtime to make court appearances.

In 2001, those responsible for 428,258 reported Crimes in British Columbia were never criminally charged.  BC’s police per capita ratio was 611 police below Canada’s national average.  

The BC government closed down courthouses in an effort to save money because the courts were being under-utilized.

"Closures include courthouses operating over capacity"

Source: THE VANCOUVER SUN January 19, 2002 Page A1 by Jeff Lee

 “Some of the 24 courthouses the provincial government says it doesn’t need anymore are operating at or above capacity and are being amalgamated with courts that are just as full, according to documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

Attorney-General Geoff Plant said the closures are necessary because many of the courthouses are under-utilized and in need of expensive repairs.  But figures provided by his ministry to agencies affected by the closures show some of the courts are so busy that judges are making more use of the facilities than the province funds them for."

Source: Government of B.C.

Police Officers by Level of Policing, 2003

• British Columbia would require an additional 539 police officers to match the Canadian national average.

• 1,244 more police to match Saskatchewan’s police per capita ratio.

• 1,244 more police to match Saskatchewan’s police per capita ratio.

• 1,037 more police to match Manitoba’s police per capita ratio.

• 871 more police to match Quebec’s police per capita ratio.

• 829 more police to match Ontario’s police per capita ratio.

* Canada total Police excluding RCMP headquarters and Training Academy (1,138 police)

Number of police officers per 100,000, International Ranking, 2000 

Source: Statistics Canada – Catalogue No. 85-225 Page 25                Police resources in Canada, 2003

Economic and Social Data Ranking, OECD; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

CANADA RANKED 24^th   among 29 COUNTRIES in Statistics Canada study

Level of Policing in Canada, 2003

Source: Statistics Canada – Catalogue 85-225 Page 21

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