PoCo crime rates drop; traffic tickets spike

Port Coquitlam’s crime rate has been slowly sinking but the number of speeding drivers seems to be accelerating.

While higher than its neighbours in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam’s crime rate dipped to 51 crimes per 1,000 people in 2023. The city’s crime rate has been hovering in the low 50s over the past three years.

Impaired driving declined in 2023. However, iincidents of speeding, distracted driving and seatbelt infractions all rose sharply.

Officers handed out 5,302 traffic tickets – more than twice as many as in 2022.

More than 2,300 drivers were caught speeding and another 500 were ticketed for using an electronic device while behind the wheel.

The increase is largely due to officers carrying out more than 525 hours of “specialized traffic enforcement” at strategic locations in the city, according to Coquitlam RCMP Insp. Darren Carr, who presented his report to Port Coquitlam council Tuesday.

Police took 10,844 calls for service in 2023, a dip of less than one percent from 2022.

Calls to police have generally been declining over the past seven years, dropping nearly 20 percent from 2017 to 2023.

Mental health calls hit an all-time high last year, with 882 calls, marking an approximately 21 percent increase from 2022.

On 457 occasions, officers took a resident to hospital. The average hospital wait time ranged from one-hour and 45 minutes to a little over two hours. There were 89 incidences of officers waiting more than two hours at a hospital.

While more data is necessary to make a definitive statement, having a mental health nurse partner with an officer seems to be a big help in cutting those wait times, according to Insp. Carr.

There were 670 persons crimes in 2023, the lowest total number in the last seven years.

Approximately 46 percent of persons crimes were assaults. Threats and harassment accounted for a total of 39 percent of persons crimes. Eight percent of those crimes were sex offences while extortion accounted for three percent and kidnapping one percent.

The department recorded 1,767 property crimes last year. The number of property crimes has been declining since a recent spike of 2,350 property crimes in 2019.

While property crimes decreased overall, incidents of fraud rose 32 percent. Shoplifting ticked up six percent.