What may be behind Saskatoon's drop in crime
SASKATOON -
Saskatoon's Crime Severity Index rate dropped 10 per cent last year.
The index is Statistics Canada's annual measure of the volume and severity of crimes reported to police.
Saskatoon came in at 106 in 2020 - down from marks of around 118 to 119 from 2016 to 2019.
Nationally, the index fell eight per cent. Statistics Canada attributes some of the drop to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Less property crime was largely the reason for the overall decline in police-reported crime in 2020," Statistics Canada said in its daily note.
"With stay-at-home orders and many individuals working remotely, most Canadians were not leaving their homes as often, which reduced opportunities for some property crimes. Violations such as breaking and entering, shoplifting of $5,000 or under and theft of $5,000 or under declined markedly from 2019 to 2020."
However, this year's figures aren't all good news, as the number of police-reported hate crimes in Canada increased by 37 per cent during the first year of the pandemic to 2,669 in 2020.
"This marks the largest number of police-reported hate crimes since comparable data became available in 2009," Statistics Canada says.
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