Vancouver police see "steady decline" in stranger attacks

Unprovoked stranger attacks have become the troubling new reality in Metro Vancouver, increasing sharply as the region came out of the pandemic.

But good news may be on the horizon. The Vancouver Police Department has seen a reduction in the number of stranger assaults in the city since they reached an alarming peak in 2021.

“Follow-up analysis suggests that there has been a steady decline in unprovoked stranger assaults since 2021,” the force said in a report to the police board posted online on November 23.

The VPD’s latest analysis suggests there’s been a 77% decrease in the frequency of stranger attacks during the pandemic, Sgt. Steve Addison told Daily Hive in an email.

Back in 2021, the VPD shared statistics that suggested four people a day were victims of random, unprovoked attacks in Vancouver. Now, that figure is down to 1.1 for the first half of 2023.

“That’s definitely moving in the right direction, but there’s still more work to do,” Addison said.

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The VPD report defines stranger assaults as attacks where no previous relationship between the assailant and victim exists. The interaction is brief in nature, usually less than 20 seconds. Addison clarified the assault also needs to be unreasonable in circumstance — so bar fights and road rage incidents don’t count.

The VPD suggested that one contributing factor to the increase in stranger assaults could have been fewer “guardians or bystanders” on the street due to pandemic restrictions, coupled with pressures on mental health because of COVID-19.

“The return of pre-pandemic daily routines has now led to more pedestrians and increased guardianship within public spaces,” the force said in the report.

Though the attacks are decreasing in frequency, some troubling ones have still occurred just this year in Metro Vancouver. Earlier this month, a woman was pulled to the ground by her hair in Metrotown Mall, and back in April, a 70-year-old man was knocked down and bitten in Vancouver.

There was also the throat-slashing incident aboard a Surrey bus in April and the heartbreaking story of Paul Schmidt, the young father who was stabbed to death by a stranger on a downtown Starbucks patio in March.