Crime rate stays flat in Port Moody
Port Moody is one of the safest cities in Metro Vancouver, according to recently released data from Statistics Canada.
With the exception of the District of North Vancouver, the City of the Arts has the lowest crime severity index in the region.
The crime severity index weighs different crimes based on their relative seriousness to calculate a crime rate per 100,000 residents. For 2023, Port Moody had a crime severity index of 41.2 and a violent crime severity index of 37.6.
Local news that matters to you
No one covers the Tri-Cities like we do. But we need your help to keep our community journalism sustainable.
The crime severity index has generally been flat from 2021 to 2023. The violent crime severity index, which includes uttering threats and criminal harassment and confinement, tends to fluctuate.
The highest violent crime severity index in the Tri-Cities in recent years was in Port Coquitlam in 2022, when the index hit 97.0.
PoCo’s violent crime rate fell to 56.1 in 2023. The city’s overall crime rate was 68.7 last year.
Coquitlam had an overall crime rate of 65.4 and a violent crime rate of 68.5.
Those figures are generally lower than nearby cities like Burnaby, which had a crime rate 74.2 and violent crime rate 64.3. Maple Ridge had a crime rate of 87.9 and a violent crime rate of 92.0.
For Metro Vancouver, the highest crime rate was 110.7 in Surrey. The highest violent crime rate was 102.8 in Vancouver.
Statistically, the District of North Vancouver was the safest spot in the region, with a crime rate of 37.3 and a violent crime rate of 34.9.
Over a 23-year span from 1998 to 2021, the crime severity index dropped by approximately 65 percent in Port Moody.
The same trend showed up in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam, where the crime severity index fell by 55 and 53 percent, respectively. In both cities, the drop in non-violent crime was far greater than the drop in violent crime.
Speaking to the Dispatch in 2023, Simon Fraser University criminology professor Martin Andresen suggested more reliable security might play a role in the decreasing crime rate.
“With electronic immobilizers, you literally cannot steal a vehicle unless you have the key,” Andresen said.
There’s some research to suggest that the reduction in auto theft has meant fewer criminals making transition into violent crime.
“People typically start with property crime first and then move into violent crime,” he said.
Author
