Halton Region is Officially #1

Published July 26, 2017 at 3:39 pm

Halton is once again Canada’s safest regional municipality – with a population of 100,000 or more – for the eighth straight year, according to Statistics Canada’s annual report on crime in Canada.<

Halton is once again Canada’s safest regional municipality – with a population of 100,000 or more – for the eighth straight year, according to Statistics Canada’s annual report on crime in Canada.

“This longstanding distinction could not be achieved without the continuous efforts of our uniform officers and the support of, and strong partnerships with, Halton’s citizens – the true ambassadors of our great Region”, said Police Chief Stephen Tanner.

“Through effective and efficient police operations and citizen engagement, we are well positioned to maintain our reputation as Canada’s safest regional municipality to live, work, raise a family and retire for many years to come.”

The report, entitled “Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2016”, provides a detailed overview of crime statistics as reported by police services across the country.

The data was recently released, finding Halton Region:

• Had the lowest Crime Severity Index* (CSI), Violent Crime Severity Index and Non-Violent Crime Severity Index when compared to Ontario’s ‘Big 12’ police services;

• Maintained the lowest values for each of the indices for eight straight reporting years (2009 – 2016);

• Had the lowest overall crime rate, violent crime rate, and property crime rate among Ontario’s ‘Big 12’ police services;

• Had the highest weighted clearance rate (49.8 per cent) of the same ‘Big 12’.

Nationally, Halton ranked 298 out of a total of 305 police services in terms of its overall Crime Severity Index. Only seven communities in Canada with populations greater than 10,000 have lower overall CSI values.

While policing fundamentals such as crime prevention and enforcement remained a mainstay of everyday operations in 2016, HRPS has enhanced its capacity to serve members of the public through new, community-based approaches to issues related to traffic, crime, mental health and addiction, crime prevention and vulnerable persons.

This innovative and integrated strategy is the foundation of Halton’s Community Safety and Well-being Plan, which the service has been developing in collaboration with its valued community partners, and which is slated to officially launch later this year.

HRPS is committed to a ‘community first’ policing philosophy that focuses on incorporating the four pillars of (community) safety and well-being into service priorities: emergency response, risk intervention, prevention, and social development.

Statistics Canada introduced the CSI in 2009 as a measure of severity of crimes committed in Canada. Crimes are assigned “seriousness weights” which are determined by the number of people convicted of the crime who spend time in jail, and how much jail time those individuals serve. To calculate the CSI, the number of incidents for each offence is multiplied by the weight of that offence.

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