MAPPING CRIMES ONLINE
It’s always better if the general public is kept informed about what’s going on, rather than being kept in the dark. That is especially true when it comes to local crime.
Thanks to a data-sharing agreement with the Montreal urban agglomeration, criminal activities in reconstituted suburban municipalities are now included on an interactive digital map that previously only included figures from Montreal’s 19 boroughs, including the two located in the West Island. Now all West Islanders are one or two clicks away from accessing online criminal stats for their neighbourhoods (via ) for incidents recorded by Montreal police.
Currently, the map contains crime information from 2015 to November 2016. By clicking blue dots on the map, visitors can take note of criminal activity in a particular area for incidents that involved a death, breaking and entering, theft from a vehicle, theft of a vehicle, mischief (such as vandalism) or a robbery. Cases of sexual assault are not included. Searches can be refined by one of the specific types of crimes listed as well as by month or year.
As far as criminal activity goes, the area around the Fairview Pointe-Claire shopping centre is one of the hot spots in the West Island, according to the map. Between January and November 2016, eight vehicles were stolen and there were 19 thefts from vehicles. As well, 11 cases of mischief, five armed robberies and three break-ins were reported in the Fairview area, which is near the intersection of Highway 40 and St-Jean Blvd. That’s a total of 46 incidents in the Fairview area alone in the first 11 months of 2016.
The interactive map is an online tool for West Islanders who wonder about crime rates in their hometown and how it compares to other municipalities, said Baie-d’Urfé Mayor Maria Tutino.
Tutino said her town of about 3,800 residents is one of the safest on the island of Montreal. However she used the online map to determine that there were seven incidents of criminal activity in October 2016 and another five last November. Of these 12 incidents reported in October and November, nine were break-ins, she said.
West Island municipalities deploy their own public security patrols. While they don’t have the authority to make arrests and are unarmed, the public security agents do provide extra eyes and ears in their respective communities, which can help police. City officials can use the interactive map to perhaps redirect their public security patrols to neighbourhoods targeted by criminal activity.
Obviously, police are aware of these statistics, but municipal leaders can still use this map to request special attention or lobby for a task force to deal with rising criminal activity in a particular area.
Knowing where crime exists in the West Island won’t cause public panic. Instead, it should inspire residents to be more cautious and make sure they take reasonable efforts at crime prevention, including looking around their neighbourhood for suspicious activity and calling 911 if they think police need to intervene. This could be the result of spotting drug deals in local parks, acts of vandalism or would-be burglars who might be canvassing homes.
West Islanders are served by four of Montreal’s 32 police stations: Station 1, (which serves Baie-d’Urfé, Beaconsfield, Kirkland, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue and Senneville), Station 3 (Pierrefonds-Roxboro and ÎleBizard/Ste-Geneviève), Station 4 (Dollard-des-Ormeaux) and Station 5 (Dorval and PointeClaire).
Obviously, police are aware of these statistics, but municipal leaders can still use this map to request special attention or lobby for a task force to deal with rising criminal activity in a particular area.