Domestic-incident calls expected to rise by 16%, say Calgary police

Already-ballooning numbers of domestic incident calls in Calgary will likely increase by another 16 per cent this year, city police said Friday.

Those numbers, driven higher by the stress caused by Calgary’s beleaguered economy, aren’t expected to improve for a few more years, said Staff Sgt. Rob Davidson.

“We expect to be well over 22,000 calls this year — that’s two incidents per hour, 24 hours, 365 days a year,” Davidson told a luncheon honouring those combating the problem.

In 2015, the force responded to just under 19,000 such calls, itself a 10 per cent increase over the previous year.

And there was a shocking 70 per cent jump in the number of domestic assaults involving weapons, a trend that’s not changing among overall numbers fuelled by the oil and gas downturn, said Davidson.

“We’ve been experiencing this since 2014 ... there’s a correlation with unemployment and crude oil prices,” he said.

“We’re expecting to have elevated rates of domestic violence through to 2020.”

Of those calls this year, the force is expected to deal with 3,500 violent incidents, among numbers 28 per cent higher than a recent fiveyear average.

Just as grimly, Davidson said, only about 30 per cent of victims report the crimes to authorities, something he attributed to feelings of“mistrust and anxiety” directed at the justice system.

Those numbers come against the background of more hopeful statistics chalked up by Domestic Conflict Response Teams (DCRTs) operated by social agency Homefront, partnered with police and other players.

Of those helped by the DCRTs, 80 per cent will experience no further conflict, said Maggie MacKillop, executive director for Homefront.

“That’s huge,” she said. “These aren’t just numbers, these are families — men, women and children.”

The total number of people engaged in support services was just under 8,000 with 90 per cent of primary clients being women, 60 per cent of whom have children, according to Homefront.