Property crime and fraud up, violent crime down in Surrey
Throughout the year, Surrey RCMP releases their quarterly statistics on crime in the city. With the statistics being released three months after the city announced its plan to expand its RCMP detachment with the addition of 95 police officers and 20 community safety patrol officers, it would be reasonable to expect a decrease in crime and, for the most part, the statistics suggest just that.
According to Surrey RCMP, there’s been a noted increase in property crime regionally – with Surrey being no exception. When it comes to property crime, most of the time, a large portion of offences are committed by a small group of people.
Thieves often target unlocked vehicles or vehicles with items visible – even a few dollars of loose change can lead to a break in. Other recent property crime trends include break-ins to unoccupied residences in South Surrey and thefts involving garage door openers to gain access to homes.
Over the past quarter, Surrey has also seen an increase of fraud-related crime such as scams and identity theft, with thieves looking to steal people’s credit card information being the go-to scheme.
Violent crime, however, has continued its downward trend, falling 8% in the last quarter and 9% since the beginning of 2014. Though there was was a spike in homicides during the latest quarter, overall, murders are also down 42% since the start of the year.
An area of violent crime that has seen an increase however, has been the use of knives during fights which is leading to more charges of attempted murder since injuries tend to be more severe.
One thing that remains constant is the importance of reporting crime. “In order for police to identify and act on a crime trend, we need to know about it,” explains Sgt. Dale Carr.
“A seemingly minor offence can help form part of a larger picture.”
Featured Image: Crime Tape via Shutterstock
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