Sherbrooke crime rate down despite increases in certain areas
Sherbrooke’s annual police report for 2018 was presented to the city council on Monday night, highlighting a 4.61 per cent reduction in the overall crime rate despite the fact that crimes against the person, which include things like harassment, assault, threats, and murder, saw an increase. This puts the city’s crime rate at its lowest point in ten years.
According to Police Chief Danny Mcconnell, crimes against property such as breaking and entering, and theft, were down 10 per cent overall last year, which significantly contributed to the decrease of one per cent in the crime severity, despite there having been four murders in the city.
“For Sherbrooke, that is a lot,” Mcconnell said, adding that the killings were all independent of one another and not linked to organized crime.
Although it is easy to look at an increase in reports of harassment as a negative, the police chief argued that increased reporting shows that people continue to have faith in the Police to respond to their concerns. He added that in the era of social media it is becoming easier to provide proof of wrongdoing.
“When the proof is in hand, people feel more empowered to bring their complaint to the police,” Mcconnell continued. “If you are the victim of a sexual assault or some other crime against the person, the police are here to investigate and support you.”
While the overall crime rate suggests an improvement, the Police Chief said it would still be good for his service to have more resources, particularly with regard to its new focus on mental health services.
“Mental health plays a part in the vast majority of police interventions on the territory,” he said. “It is a daily challenge.”
A total of 131,103 calls were made to the police in 2018 (versus 131,238 in 2017) and 38,378 of those calls resulted in police dispatches, 14,603 police reports, and 2,010 investigations. When it comes to mental health, 1,578 files were opened regarding people with a disturbed mental state or suicidal tendencies. 2018 marked the third year in a row that the rate of crimes against the person increased.