The number of violent offences increased by 5.3 per cent in Greater Sudbury last year, while property crime incidents dropped by 9.3 per cent.
The overall number of criminal offences reported to Greater Sudbury Police Service last year was 9,595, which was a slight decrease from the 9,692 reported in 2021.
Last year also signalled the third year in a row the total number of criminal offences decreased since the latest peak of 10,531 was recorded in 2019.
Chief Paul Pedersen offered the city’s police board a rundown of 2022 crime statistics during Wednesday’s meeting, at which he clarified there’s no lack of nuance to the numbers.
“It’s comforting to the community that crime is down slightly, which is a nice thing,” he said. “That said, that doesn’t tell the whole picture.”
Most concerning to the general public will be the jump in violent crime, he clarified.
“Violent crime is that headline-grabbing, quite honestly very frightening activities that are going on in our community.
“These are the complicated offences that take a lot of time to investigate, take a toll on our members and increase fear in our community.”
When it comes to the community’s sense of fear, Pedersen later clarified that the majority of violent incidents involve victims and offenders known to each other, “so they’re not a danger to strangers.”
That said, he noted there has been an increase in violence related to guns, gangs and drugs in the community.
“They may be known to each other, but that’s still a threat to our community.”
There were 12 homicides recorded in Greater Sudbury in 2022, which was the highest number for any year on record (Statistics Canada provides information dating back to 1981).
Although the overall GSPS clearance rate was 41.3 per cent in 2022 (a slight increase from 40 per cent in 2021), their clearance rate for violent offences was 66.4 per cent (the same as in 2021). The clearance rate for property offences was 16.2 per cent.
A clearance rate represents the percentage of crimes for which an arrest is made.
Violent offences totalled 2,876 in 2022, while property offences totalled 4,864.
Last year’s 9.3 per cent drop in property crime is “almost counterintuitive” to what the public has been saying, Pedersen said. His report credits proactive measures, such as Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, people installing surveillance measures such as doorbell cameras, and increases in multi-jurisdictional investigations.
Some other notable statistics to come out of 2022 crime totals include:
- There were 58,117 calls for service to GSPS in 2022, of which 48,522 (83 per cent) were not criminal in nature.
- Impaired driving offences totalled 271, which was a decrease of 17.6 per cent from the 329 recorded in 2021 (which was a 67 per cent jump from the 197 cases recorded in 2020). While there was a 75-incident drop in drug-impaired driving offences in 2022, there was an increase of 16 alcohol-impaired driving incidents. Of these incidents, 78 offences were recorded following motor vehicle collisions (up from 66 in 2021)
- A 17.5 per cent decrease in mischief (181 incidents) was recorded in 2022, which police attribute to decreased COVID-19 restrictions, which allowed for greater foot traffic and less opportunity to commit mischief-type offences such as smashing windows.
- A 15.4 per cent decrease in arson offences was recorded in 2022 (a drop of six incidents from 2021).
- There were 673 break-and-enters recorded in 2022, which was a 19.6 per cent decrease from 2021.
- Fraud incidents dropped by 190 in 2022 (an 18.3 per cent drop from 2021), which includes 180 fewer identity fraud offences.
- Of the 2,056 theft under $5,000 incidents recorded in 2022 (an increase of 0.4 per cent from the previous year), 620 involved theft from vehicles (a 31.5 per cent decrease from 2021) and 558 were related to shoplifting incidents (a 43 per cent increase from 2021). When it comes to shoplifting, Pedersen’s report notes, “Reductions in COVID-19 restrictions allowed a return to higher capacities in stores and permitted greater opportunity to shoplift. Additionally, inflated prices and reduced income to households as a result of the pandemic may have created a greater need.”
- Theft of motor vehicles jumped by eight per cent (20 cases) to 269 incidents in 2022.
- Sexual assaults were up by 1.6 per cent, and other sexual offences were up by 2.3 per cent.
- There were 1,496 assaults reported, which was an 88-incident increase from the 1,408 recorded in 2021.
While the numbers presented on Wednesday represent crimes reported to GSPS, Pedersen noted that many crimes are not brought to the attention of police.
He took a moment to urge the public to report crimes, either directly to police or through their online CopLogic reporting tool available by clicking here. Even in cases where there isn’t a meaningful resolve for the complainant, he said that when police know where crime is happening they can better target areas of the community for crime prevention efforts.
Earlier this year, Sudbury.com reported on crime numbers provided by GSPS which showed a 4.9 per cent drop in violent crime in 2022 and a 14.25 per cent drop in property crime.
The discrepancy between these numbers and those reported on Wednesday have to do with police updating their data, a GSPS spokesperson explained.
At the time of the information request earlier this year, the Statistics Canada Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) codes were not up to date for the 2022 calendar year,” they noted.
“When the crime report comes out, the numbers will change (as is common with most police services). These figures will also differ if we were to pull the information in another few months, as investigative circumstances evolve and new information comes to light, causing outcomes to change.”
The numbers provided earlier this year offered a breakdown in crime by neighbourhood, which revealed a 40 per cent drop in downtown-area crime in 2022.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
