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Rural crime rates spiked in some surprising locations while remaining low in other areas over the month of January. Does your community make the list?
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We base this data on RCMP released crime statistics and make the comparisons on a per 1,000 residents basis to get a true picture of what the crime is like in these places.
The January report highlights that if a region becomes targeted, the crime rates can quickly jump from zero to four times higher than what that region is used to.
A good example of this sudden increase was with the region with the highest rate of rural crime, Northern Sunrise County. While overall, the community has had one of the lowest crime rates we’ve seen the last 18 months it has recently shot back up.
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Since this region’s population is a fairly low 1952 it makes the crime rate per 1,000 rise quickly. Red Deer County and the MD of Greenview were tied for second. Red Deer County, has a population of 19,541 and the 49 crimes recorded in January made their rate 2.51 per 1,000 while Northern Sunrise County’s 9 crimes made the rate per 1,000 4.61.
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The three lowest crime regions in January were the County of Grande Prairie, Parkland County, and Clearwater County for the regions we track. All three of these regions have something very similar in common.
These safest regions have had very active vocal supporters of Lightcatch in their communities.
Organizations and community leaders in these places have consistently been visible in their support of the free app as a crime fighting tool.
The County of Grande Prairie has especially been a focal point of our efforts after they signed a 1 year program to have Lightcatch support ratepayers within their borders in May 2021. Since October, the County has had one of the lowest crime rates.
Parkland County has had Enforcement Services members, Holborn Rural Crime Watch, Stony Plain Community Crime Watch and the RCMP all consistently recommending Lightcatch as a free crime prevention tool for over 1 year. The results of those efforts appear closely connected to this region having some of the consistently lowest regions for rural crime.
Recently the Clearwater Community Crime Watch has been very visible online and in the community recommending residents use Lightcatch as a crime prevention tool. The crime rate within the County borders appears to have begun dropping after those efforts.
The City of Grande Prairie is completely within the County of Grande Prairie borders. Yet the City has consistently had one of the highest crime rates while the County has had one of the lowest crime rates. How could this possibly be?
The economics, the population and the incomes are all similar between these two regions.
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One of the clearest explanations from our point of view is the difference in how Lightcatch is treated. The residents in the City receive no support from the Lightcatch operations team. County residents get extensive support before and after a crime occurs.