Crime statistics give Thunder Bay infamous homicide ranking

Policing the community and crime are not just police issues, says Thunder Bay’s chief of police.

The city ranked no. 1 in homicides with five murders in Statistics Canada’s police-reported crime statistics for 2010 released Thursday. The city ranked fourth in violent crimes and fifth in reported-crimes overall behind Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Kelowna respectively.

Thunder Bay Police Service’s Chief J.P. Levesque said the numbers are a reflection of social issues in the city.

“If you look at the types of homicides we deal with generally in Thunder Bay they don’t tend to be random,” he said. “The victim is known to the accused person. There also tends to be some correlation with alcohol and drug use as well.

“Those issues lead to not just the homicide rate, but the violent crime rate as well.”
Thunder Bay’s high rate of drug and alcohol abuse and other mental health issues have to be dealt with before the city sees any decrease in the crime stats, the recently appointed police chief said.

He added that the addition of a crime prevention council is a great start.

The crime prevention council works as a hub for the agencies that need to start the social programs needed. The city needs more detox beds and more addiction treatment programs as well as help with mental health issues.

Although the members of the police service work hard, the city is still seeing crime rates hold steady for the past few years.

“No. 1 in homicides – nobody wants that,” said Levesque. “We work hard; we do our best, but a lot of the social issues really add to the numbers we are seeing. Unless we see some help at the social level, I can’t see them changing.”

The chief said he’s open to partnering with the different agencies required to get the numbers down and while the crime prevention council is still in its infancy, it will be a driver to get the necessary programs up and running.

Nationally the crime rate has dropped five per cent since 2009, continuing a 20-year downward trend and hitting its lowest mark since 1973.

Levesque said one thing that could skew the numbers is the crime-reporting rate. Thunder Bay’s is more than double the national average at 74 per cent.

Double the amount of crimes being reported in Thunder Bay is going to make the crime rate higher and Levesque said they encourage people to continue reporting crimes.

“That’s what we’re here for,” he said. “We’re intelligence-driven and the more people who report crimes, the better it is for us and the easier it makes it for us to solve different things.”