Is B.C. getting safer? Province reveals new crime data
B.C. says that its crime severity index dropped by 11 per cent in 2024, largely in part to increasing police funding.
The crime severity index marks the changes in levels of crime year-to-year, and 2024 was at its lowest in six years.
“Police in our province play a vital role in keeping our communities safe, and we are dedicated to ensuring they have the support and resources they need to continue doing their job effectively,” said Nina Krieger, minister of public safety and solicitor general, in a release.
While the crime data is from 2024, the province notes that it is investing $7 million in policing in the 2025-26 fiscal year “to support operations targeting repeat violent offenders.”
In 2023, they started the Special Investigation and Targeted Enforcement (SITE) program to better “proactive enforcement” and to “address repeat violent offending and disrupt the cycle of crime.”
The province says that this program has supported 175 police operations throughout B.C., and that police recommended over 3,000 charges.
B.C. also started its Community Safety and Targeted Enforcement (CSTEP) program last year, to “tackle street disorder and retail theft affecting businesses and downtown communities.”
B.C. says that CSTEP also helped Metro Vancouver Transit Police bust an alleged theft ring, leading to $200,000 in stolen luxury merchandise being seized.
Since May of last year, CSTEP supported 40 police operations across the province, with 43 charges laid.
Public safety a growing concern
Public safety has increasingly become a contentious issue in recent years — particularly regarding repeat offenders.
In April last year, for example, the suspect who attacked a Toronto woman in Stanley Park was released on house arrest conditions afterwards.
Kash Heed, a long-time former police officer, told the Daily Hive last year that the province is to blame for repeat offenders.
“It’s the administration of justice. It’s clear that if you’re a threat to society, it is clear that if you’re a repeat offender, you should be locked up,” he said.
“What happens is the judges in British Columbia disregard that. I don’t know why.”
However, the province has said that they had to wait for the federal government to change bail before they could take any action, which Ottawa did last October.
“When considering whether to grant bail, the amendments would direct police not to release an accused when it is against the public interest or when detention is needed to protect victims, or witnesses,” explained the Department of Justice in the announcement.
With files from Amir Ali