Cape Breton crime stats beat provincial, national averages

Cape Breton regional police dealt with fewer crimes last year compared to the previous year and the ones it did investigate were less severe.

At the same time, the force was able to solve more crimes, known as the clearance rate.

That's all counter to the trends experienced elsewhere, according to Statistics Canada data presented at a Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) police commission meeting on Monday.

Those numbers show crime rates and severity went up across Nova Scotia and the rest of the country, while clearance rates generally went down.

Chief Robert Walsh said residents are mostly law-abiding, but he also credited the police force for achieving positive results.

"I'm very pleased with the efforts that our officers are putting forward," he said. "We do have a very good community, but we have an effective police service."

Compares favourably with other cities

According to the stats, CBRM's police-reported crime rate per 100,000 population dropped by about 3.5 per cent last year and its crime severity index fell 6.7 per cent.

At the same time, the force's overall case clearance rate climbed 9.27 per cent.

In addition to besting provincial and national averages, CBRM compared favourably to Halifax, St. John's, N.L., three cities in New Brunswick and Thunder Bay, Ont.

Saint John, N.B., was the only one on the list to have a better overall crime rate and a better severity index and Thunder Bay's clearance rate was the only one that beat CBRM.

In 2019, a study found the Cape Breton police service had lower crime stats and more officers per capita than other similar jurisdictions.

On Monday, Walsh said the service is supposed to have 200 officers, but still has 23 vacancies and he'd like to see those filled.

"I'm proud of ... the efforts that have been done and where our crime stats are, but there's always things that we could do better and improve on and I would love to see us reach full complement and the more proactive work that we could do if we were back at close to full staff," he said.

With more officers, Cape Breton police could do more public education and more crime prevention, Walsh said.

With an aggressive recruiting strategy this year, the service recently hired two new officers who came from other police agencies and five recruits are expected to graduate and start work in CBRM in the next week or so, he said.

Other potential hires are in the works and if they are successful, the force could cut its staff vacancies in half by the end of the year, Walsh said.

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