Crime: Is it all relative?

In a recent Maclean’s Magazine article the editor wrote: “Being ranked the third most dangerous city in the country is not the sort of achievement most Mayors are willing to acknowledge. Lucky for Winnipeg, he goes on to write, Sam Katz is not most Mayors.” “We have a problem with crime. We are going to address it. End of story.” Says the City’s blunt-spoken mayor.” (on line edition March 24, 2008)

Too bad for New Westminister that we do not have a mayor willing to acknowledge problems when they exist. “Don't believe everything you read in Maclean's magazine, Mayor Wayne Wright told members of the New Westminster police board at its most recent meeting.”

According to the Royal City Record, within two days of the Maclean’s article, Chief Lorne Zapotichny and acting Deputy Chief Dave Jones attempted to put together statistical information that refuted the Maclean's story and showed that crime in New Westminster is actually on a downward trend.

However, a story in the Burnaby Newsleader the same day reported that even though the New Westminster Police Services statistics show a decline over the past 10 years, the crime rate is still higher than the provincial average—something the city’s police chief attributes to the fact New Westminster is an urban centre and also home to five SkyTrain stations.

New Westminster’s crime rate for 2006, according to the BC Police Services statistics, is 28 points higher than the provincial average of 114. So what is it? Do we have a problem with crime in our city? Are we spending just a little too much time on defending ourselves and not enough time on the real issue of crime?

Deputy Chief Jones stated that New Westminster can only "compare ourselves to ourselves" when analyzing crime statistics. Really!? So it would be OK if we are the most dangerous city in the world as long as on an incremental basis we are trending downward while we maintain our number one status?

Here is the real question: Is New Westminster safe? We hear of so many crime-related incidents in this small community. As a member of the Community Policing Committee I get a first hand report and I am not comforted. There appears to be an emergency siren running every hour somewhere in our city. One Sunday morning I counted 15 emergency vehicle sirens between 9:00 am and noon.

I applaud the members of the South Burnaby Community Policing Committee who are holding a first-ever public safety forum slated for Thursday March 27. Their proactive approach will go a long way towards addressing the safety and security concerns of their community. I suggest that New Westminster Police Board and Police Services could learn a lot from its neighbours. (Burnaby was ranked 13^th in the Maclean’s survey.)

Jan Fialkowski