Hello, Im back. I was away working on a couple of feature stories and, sadly, I missed a Vancouver Police Board meeting and failed to make it to city hall; apparently, theres some fuss being made about bike lanes, or something?
Anyhoo, since some of you might have had your fill about bike lanes and bike share systems and bike this and bike that, I thought Id get you caught up on some cop stuff.
The mayors office let us media types know last week that Mayor Gregor Robertson was happy with Police Chief Jim Chu and his departments progress on reducing violent crime. If I read the release correctly, 2012 marked the sixth consecutive year that Vancouvers violent crime rate has fallen. In fact, since 2008, violent crime dropped 16.6 per cent.
These consistent reductions in violent crime in Vancouver are a great credit to the leadership of the VPD and the countless neighbourhood volunteers who work to make our communities even safer and more livable for everyone, said the mayor, who doubles as the chairperson of the Vancouver Police Board.
Well, thats great news for the city.
But Vancouver isnt alone in Canada when it comes to reductions in violent crime, according to Statistics Canadas recent report on police-reported crime statistics for 2012.
The number of violent crimes has decreased significantly across the country, with police reporting just over 415,000 violent incidents in 2012. That is a decrease of about 9,000 incidents from the previous year. In fact, the nation-wide violent crime rate fell three per cent, its lowest level since 1987.
In addition to fewer homicides, the largest decreases were in sexual assaults, robberies and assaults on police officers, according to the national data.
Police Chief Jim Chu and his 1,300 officers want to reduce violent crime by 2.5 per cent for a total reduction of 12.5 per cent over the next five years.
So how does the VPD plan to do it?
The VPDs mid-year business plan, which went before the police board July 16, sheds some light on what police are doing to keep violent crime low.
Heres a few strategies:
Patrol district analysts complete weekly analysis reports on violence committed by chronic offenders.
The analysts also create, track and distribute weekly bulletins with respect to newly released offenders from jail, offenders with conditions and outstanding warrants for arrests.
Ongoing projects targeting chronic offenders committing property and violent crime.
The high risk offender unit ensures all patrol districts receives notifications of offenders and their probation orders.
Deploying more officers from the beat enforcement team on foot two days before and after welfare Wednesday in the Downtown Eastside. The VPD says the police presence has reduced the previous number of robbery and assault offences during that time of the month.
Continue to work with womens groups in the Downtown Eastside, including the Downtown Womens Centre, as part of the VPDs efforts to reduce violence against women.
Another report that went before the police board noted violent crime decreased 9.6 per cent to 1,1510 offences when comparing the second quarter of 2012 to 2013.
The biggest drop 15.2 per cent was in patrol district three, which includes the neighbourhoods of Sunset, Renfrew-Collingwood, Mount Pleasant, Killarney, Victoria-Fraserview and Kensington-Cedar Cottage.
mhowell@vancourier.com
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