Lethbridge CSI up in 2023 despite overall trend downward
By Lethbridge Herald on July 25, 2024.
LPS constables Tanner Campbell and James Steacy patrol Galt Gardens on Tuesday morning. Statistics Canada released the crime severity index on Thursday, showing Lethbridge saw a seven per cent increase last year, stopping the trend of lowering crime in recent years.
Herald photo by Justin SibbetJustin Sibbet – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The early months of last year brought crime and chaos, though Lethbridge is slowly becoming a safer place overall, according to the Lethbridge Police Service.
Statistics Canada released the 2023 crime severity index (CSI) on Thursday, prompting the City of Lethbridge and LPS to discuss the results.
Gerald Grobmeier, Lethbridge’s deputy chief of police, says despite the CSI rising seven per cent last year, the five-year trend is still looking bright.
“In reviewing our data and looking ahead to the first six months of 2024, it does appear that 2023 was an anomaly,” said Grobmeier.
“If things continue, as they have been, so far this year, we are on track to end 2024 with the lowest CSI levels that we’ve had in the last five years.”
Grobmeier says the first four months of 2023 saw the worst of it, but the rest of the year was more in line with the city’s trend of falling crime.
In 2022, Lethbridge ranked third highest among Canadian centres for crime severity, though this was down from 2019 to 2021, when Lethbridge claimed the unwanted top spot.
Even though the CSI rose by seven per cent last year to 129.1, Lethbridge moved into fourth in the country, tied with Winnipeg. Kamloops holds the top spot for 2023 at 165.3. Chilliwack and Red Deer are the other two cities above Lethbridge.
The CSI, with the numbers just listed, include the census metropolitan area for each location, meaning Lethbridge’s information includes other, smaller communities that are not patrolled by LPS.
According to Grobmeier, the continuing five-year trend of lower crime rates in Lethbridge have even limited crime by a full quarter so far this year.
“In 2024, we’ve had significant decreases in both persons crimes and property crimes – reductions of about 25 per cent.”
He says it is “hard to say exactly” why crime rates are lowering, but the deputy chief of police does suggest CompStat may be a factor.
CompStat provides state-of-the-art crime reduction analytics for police officers on a four-pillar basis. Grobmeier says the model in Lethbridge is “one of the most sophisticated” in the country, though its use in the city is still relatively new.
“At the start of 2023, we only had one pillar up and running and we’ve been slowly building on that,” said Grobmeier.
He says the four pillars include known individuals likely to commit crimes, hotspot locations, individuals with release conditions and areas of the city with higher report rates.
Other factors that have helped reduce crime in Lethbridge, according to Grobmeier, include The Watch and the Downtown Lawlessness Reduction Task Force. He says the outreach programs available in Lethbridge help keep the city safe without the need to lay charges at every turn.
“We’re not looking to criminalize people; we’d like to help them out.”
Meanwhile, the mayor of Lethbridge, Blaine Hyggen, says he is confident the city he presides over is safe, even if the numbers show Lethbridge near the top of the country in CSI.
“We have a safe community and I want to make sure the community knows that we have a safe community. Can we do better? Absolutely we can do better and that’s why (we’re speaking to media) to talk about the things that we’ve done and what we can do to better our community.”
Even so, he says it is unfortunate to see the numbers rising despite the efforts being made by the city and LPS.
“It is frustrating to come forward each year because crime is across the whole country and I don’t want to minimize that,” said Hyggen.
“Just because it’s happening here, it’s not happening anywhere else… it’s everywhere and it’s something that we need to be cognizant of.”
Hyggen says the efforts being done in Lethbridge are working and the City will “keep doing more and more.”
Nevertheless, the rising numbers, Hyggen says, are a reminder of what must still be done.
“Seeing numbers like this, it makes us think of what can we do better to serve our community.”
All information in the CSI by Statistics Canada mentioned in this article is based off police reported crime, so any unreported crime is not included.
To view the full report, visit https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240725/dq240725b-eng.htm?HPA=1
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I find myself in agreement with BW.. the situation has metastasized all the way down to Superstore on MMD on most days .
Interesting thought . . . I suspect there are many factors that contribute to these stats, but I never trust stats and know they can be skewed in many ways: what questions are asked, how they are asked to gain a certain response or other variables.
In this case, these stats are collected from complaints made to police, and if people decided it is too much trouble to call or are tired of police not responding soon, but hours later, they give up . . . or if they use the onllne form, it is time consuming and not user friendly for everyone, they don’t bother.
There are many reasons why I don’t trust stats! Living in the middle of the issues, seeing the issues every minute of the day gives you a better understanding.
Police on the ground have worked hard, understaffed by cutbacks from prior ‘defund the police’ groups and past Council acting on those brilliant ideas . . which in itself, how is it a good idea to cut back police when we had the highest crime stats in the country, and who were the instigators?
Some of our leadership has worked very hard and I do applaud them for it, but they got to a point where they said, we are better than other communities and appeared to do an all stop!
Now, as witnessed just in the last week, we have groups of people at night with chains, pipes, tree branches cut and fashioned as a spear or club, and even what appeared to be a gun, whether it was a pellet gun or real it is of concern, while Galt Gardens see fights and guards there assaulted while trying to break up fights and other street people walking with injuries, one with an large egg shaped piece of his scalp missing from a fight . . . so I will say from my own observations that it has never been this bad for weapons and aggression on our streets . . . not even back in 2015 when they were Indigenous gangs fighting over territory and several stabbings in 3 weeks within 2 blocks of my residence! We have a territorial battle it appears on our street once again.
I do not blame the boots on the ground who work tirelessly every shift . . . not many people work that hard everyday, in their own lines of work. The police have a good idea what is happening, they know the main players, the organized criminals and a rapport with the people on the street, but they can’t be everywhere and miss a lot, partly because they are going from one incident to another. A person in traffic doesn’t have the knowledge of downtown people or the acts, nor does someone who sits in the higher leadership positions who rely on those who report to them for information. They are well trained, but do not see what those of us who live in ‘the hood’ see.
We live it, we see it . . . I get that and I do not blame them, but that is why they should listen!
Most of what happens on our streets never gets reported in the news, because the money for reporters is just not there anymore with all the social media available to be viable . . . reporters are being cut. If people knew what happens at night, they would have a better idea of just what police/fire/EMS and even security has to deal with.
When leadership or administrators drag their feet on important policies that would make a difference, it adds stress the front line workers, and added costs to the business owners and residents!
I don’t need stats to tell me what levels of crime we have or whether we are better off now or worse off.
And you are correct . . . it is spreading ‘faster’, for a few reasons, one is less friction from other gangs and new theft opportunities . . . off course the TopHat strip club, whose strippers are provided by the bikers, has been a factor, so prostitutes hanging in the area increased along with other gang members with those prostitutes, who deal drugs, break and enter, damage property and paint graffiti and gang tags all over accompany the girls . . . they are all connected.
For a few years there have been prostitutes working the northside and the westside in small numbers.
I may disagree with police and leadership, and will always call them out, but there is no hate or anger. I am still trying to work with them for change!
Moving day. Set up in the middle of the lot by Movie Mill. I have spoken to this soul and there is definitely a mental health issue or he/she has no one to consult with as he/she wouldn’t stop chattering. On my way to ability bottle and offered my returns. Said sure. Half hour later checking the bags in the wine boxes for a drop or two. Later cans and bottles spread on the road. Later garbage bag left in the middle of the road. So the point. My gesture didn’t go well. Option. Ignore and move on, don’t call anyone so less reporting makes for better press for the drivers
Of the show.
It is sad to see this and this person would be able live a reasonably normal life with the treatment and the right medications, Some had mental health conditions prior to this crisis, while many have mental health issues from the drugs, and those issues will be resolved if the drug use ends and they are treated.
I watched one young woman, and addict with mental health issues stop with her shopping cart, lean over it and bawl in despair and I was going to ask her if there was something I could do, when some of her friends showed up.
It is very sad to see these issues that can be resolved unfold on our streets.
I have hope as North America wakes up and realizes they have been heading into the rabbit hole with bad policies and following poor advise by so called experts were activists, not experts!
Change is happening! When we allow people to kill themselves on drugs on our streets, slowly, painfully, with new drugs eating up their bone, tissue, muscle, leaving open sores and cause them to walk hunched over like 90 year old seniors, I really question us as a society for allowing this. Where has humanity gone?
And yes, WE alllowed this!
Our policies allowed this, encouraged it and enabled it!
We are on the right track, but those who make money and benefit from this crisis are fighting back . . . those who purport to be there for these people . . . in arguments with 2 of pimps/dealers on our streets, they seem to believe or want us to believe, that they are just compassionate people there to help and support the prostitutes and addicts them make money from but I have witnessed those same people who drive around all night, pass by one of those people they say they are there for, who are overdosing, laid out on the sidewalk and they are not stopping to help! They are just merchandise to them!
So many sad stories to be told, the prostitutes being beat by their so called ‘husbands’ who are just human traffickers in my mind, told that their families hate them and will never take them back and they are their new family.
We allow this!
Many more addicts have recently arrived from other areas. Is it the gangs advertising how good business is here? Or is it the excellent facilities and the support systems. Bare in mind some people would call it the enabling systems. This is big business on both ends. Sometimes you wonder who the enablers are, the big money community care campus supporters or the gangs? Seems ,sometimes like both are supporting each other?
White people sleeping on the streets won’t go to the shelter because they complain about racism from the Indigenous clients and staff at the shelter. I’m not saying it is true,just that is what I have heard them say,from more than 1 or 2 people.