Victoria鈥檚 crime rate fell 12 per cent last year, one of the most substantial declines in the country. And the capital region led sa国际传媒 with a 17 per cent drop in violent offences, nearly twice the national average. Our local police forces deserve a pat on the back for such a significant turnaround.
However, there is more to this than meets the eye. We are accustomed to thinking of lawlessness as a large and growing problem.
Yet crime rates (defined as the number of offences per 100,000 population) have been falling across the country for more than two decades. Indeed not just falling, but plummeting.
sa国际传媒鈥檚 crime rate peaked in 1991, at 10,600 offences per 100,000 population: By 2014 it had declined to 5,600, a drop of almost 50 per cent.
We don鈥檛 have numbers for the capital region that far back. But during the decade from 2002 to 2012, our crime rate fell by more than a third. That matched exactly the provincial decline. The index of violent offences has fallen by similar proportions.
In short, we are today a far more law-abiding and non-violent society than in years gone by. It鈥檚 likely aging is a factor. Older people commit fewer crimes, and our population is rapidly greying.
But here is the contentious part of the story. While criminal activity is down dramatically, our justice system shows no sign of relief.
Court backlogs have grown significantly, and we鈥檙e told more judges must be hired to keep up with the onslaught. Police unions complain their members are overworked and stressed out. And those complaints have apparently been heard.
Over the last decade, police forces in the capital region hired an additional 53 officers, a 10 per cent increase in staffing. The RCMP detachment in Sooke almost tripled.
Now, it can be argued that criminal activity is down precisely because more officers were deployed. Boost the number of officers and you suppress the level of crime, either by taking crooks off the street, or by scaring them straight.
But in other areas of the public service, where workloads have lightened, we鈥檝e seen budget reductions. School boards are closing classrooms because enrolments have fallen. Yet when it comes to law enforcement, the costs keep rising regardless.
There are certainly mitigating factors. Dealing with homeless people who are mentally ill has become a huge drain on law enforcement. In effect, police officers are filling a gap left by inadequate social services.
And the volume of paperwork required to support court cases has exploded. More than three years have elapsed since the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver, and prosecutions are still working their way through the system.
But the proper response to these problems is not hiring more police officers. You can鈥檛 treat mental illness with a gun and a badge. And our clogged-up courts need a dose of line management, not more paper-pushers. The requirements for disclosure in court cases are burying police and lawyers under mountains of documents; that trend must be brought under control.
When the Cold War came to an end, it was widely believed a 鈥減eace dividend鈥� was owed. Taxpayers expected to see 鈥� and did see 鈥� reductions in military spending.
Lawlessness hasn鈥檛 come to an end, and never will. But when crime rates fall by half, and police budgets don鈥檛 follow that trend, some serious issues arise.
For police intervention should be a last resort, not a cure-all for the ills of society.
Peace and good order are best achieved when the community takes charge. The huge drop in crime rates suggests we鈥檝e done that. A lighter police presence is justified.
