The local crime scene is trending in a different direction from the national trend.
In the annual Police Reported Crime Statistics report issued by Statistics Canada Thursday (July 27) the overall Crime Severity Index (CSI) nationally for 2022 was listed at 78.1 an increase of 4% from 2021. The Violent Crime Severity Index nation-wide last year was the highest it’s been since 2007.
The Ontario overall CSI was 58.5 last year, also up by 4%.
However in the Belleville Census Metropolitan Area (Belleville, Quinte West, Stirling-Rawdon, Tyendinaga-Deseronto and policed by the Belleville Police Service, Quinte West OPP, Central Hastings OPP, and Lennox and Addington OPP) the overall CSI was 67.7, down from 2021 by 1%.
The Belleville CMA’s Violent Crime Severity Index was 74.14 in 2022, down from 83.2 the year before, an 11% drop.
The Crime Severity Index tracks changes in the severity of police-reported crime by accounting for both the amount of crime reported by police in a given jurisdiction and the relative seriousness of these crimes.
The number of violent criminal incidents (robbery, homicide, sexual assault, extortion etc.) locally last year was 6,602, down from 6,748 in ’21.
There was one homicide in the Belleville CMA last year, down from two the year before.
However, there were three incidents of attempted murder in 2022, up from two in ’21.
Assaults involving a weapon and/or bodily harm totalled 144 last year, up from 137 the year previous and the highest number it’s been in the past four years.
As far as Level 1 sexual assault incidents, there were 133 in the Belleville CMA last year, the same number as 2021. Level 1 sex assault involves
any sexual act forced upon another person.
The Belleville CMA’s crime rate (crimes per 100,000) was 5,266 per 100,000 population, a drop of 2% from 2021.
Access the detailed Statistics Canada report here.
