Lethbridge sees Crime Severity Index score spike by nearly seven per cent

LETHBRIDGE — Statistics Canada has released its crime severity index scores for 2023 and for the first time in three years, Lethbridge saw its score go up.

Lethbridge's score for 2023 is 129.1, which is an increase of nearly seven per cent from 2022.

"During the first four months of 2023, instances of crime increased that had a significant impact on our CSI. So the majority of the increase of the CSI of 2023 happened in probably that first four or five months of 2023," said Lethbridge Police Deputy Chief Gerald Grobmeier.

Lethbridge is now tied with Winnipeg for the fourth-highest score in the country.

Kamloops had the highest score at 165.3.

The City of Lethbridge says the city is safe but knows there are things to work on.

"Do we have a safe community? We have a safe community and I want to make sure that the community knows that. We have a safe community. Can we do better? Absolutely we can do better and that's why we’re standing before you today to talk about the things that we've done and what we can do to better our community," said Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen.

Lethbridge police believe last year was an anomaly in what's been a downward trend over the previous several years.

Police crime severity stats so far this year have Lethbridge on track to finish with its lowest score in five years.

"We've had significant decreases in both persons crimes and property crimes – reductions of about 25 per cent," Grobmeier said.

The national crime index for 2023 is 80.5, up just over two per cent from 2022.

"Some of the things nationally that affected it were increases in child pornography. We saw large increases in B.C., lesser increase of about 14 per cent in Alberta," said Warren Silver, national training officer at the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics at Statistics Canada.

In 2019, Lethbridge had its highest CSI score of 141.7.

Between 2019 and 2021, Lethbridge had the highest CSI score in the country.