Excessive worry and justified
jitters … blurry lines undermine public confidence

By Laurie Carter

If it bleeds, it leads.
Apparently the old newsroom adage is alive and well and still guiding editors, producers and anchors. Bloody traffic accidents are good, home invasions with battered seniors — very good, murder with organized crime connections — excellent, serial killer — jackpot.

No day passes without a story on some kind of criminal activity. Yet, sensational or not, journalists would argue that they aren’t making this stuff up — merely reporting the facts. If those facts fuel public perception, so be it.

However, the powerful impact of the media is by no means the only factor influencing opinion. Politicians are more than happy to use the spectre of crime to score points with voters while personal experience and word of mouth must also play an important role.

We began this investigation with a basic premise that people have a certain level of awareness and concern about crime, but we were not convinced that perception always matches reality. To give us a baseline for comparison, we conducted an informal survey among staff members and recent subscribers to our website, OkanaganLife.com.

The responses yielded some expected results and others that surprised us. A whopping 71 per cent said they think crime in the Valley is rising. One quarter of respondents think the rate is stable while only four per cent feel it is falling. Drugs and drug-related offences were cited by 62 per cent as the major problem.

When asked to compare the rate of crime in the Okanagan with Vancouver, 48 per cent said they think it is lower and 38 per cent think it is the same. A stunning 60 per cent said they have personally been the victims of crime in the Valley. And 85 per cent of all respondents said that if they were to be the victim of a future crime, it would be theft.

Armed with our person-on-the-web perceptions, we sought out the facts, identified some interesting gaps and then talked with the Valley’s top cops to get their take on the situation.
Statistics obtained from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General show that in 1996 Vancouver’s crime rate significantly outstripped the Okanagan’s three major centres. There, 196.9 Criminal Code offences (excluding traffic offences) were reported per 1,000 population while the rate for Kelowna was 159.6; Penticton was 138.9 and Vernon was 169.5. However, all three Valley cities exceeded the provincial rate of 138.3 reported crimes.

The pattern of exceeding the provincial average remained throughout the last decade; but the comparison with Vancouver changed significantly. As the Crime Rate graph (pg. 19) indicates, crime in the Okanagan had its ups and downs between 1996 and 2005 with a definite upswing in the early 2000s that peaked in 2003 and 2004. But over the same period, Vancouver’s crime rate steadily declined with only a small blip in 2004. Although Valley crime rates dropped again in 2006, the disparity with Vancouver continues.

Why should crime rates be higher in the Okanagan than the rest of BC, especially a major city like Vancouver?

Kelowna RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon says, “the opening of the Coquihalla changed everything for the Okanagan. This area is so much more accessible.” He cites unprecedented growth as a major contributor and adds, “You’ve also got to take into consideration that this is a major tourist community …. We have estimates that throughout May 24 to October, somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 people come to this community.”

He says weather is a big factor. On cold days you won’t find many criminal transients downtown, but “as soon as the warm weather comes, that’s our busy time and we have to jump on it as soon as possible, otherwise they just keep coming.” These criminals have discovered that Kelowna is a nice place to live, affluent with lots of amenities. “We try to discourage people from giving them money because that just encourages them to come here and tell their friends to come here,” says McKinnon.

It’s the same story in Penticton. “Our crime rate is significantly higher,” says officer in charge, Insp. Dan Fudge. “The sun, the fun attracting people … Obviously the Connector has changed a lot. People have easier access, they come here to party, it’s kind of known as a party area.”

Fudge explains that both tourism and being a regional core city impact on crime statistics, which report the number of crimes per 1,000 residents — making no allowance for those who live in the surrounding area or come from farther afield, but commit crimes in the city.
In 2003, he notes, “We had quite an influx of people coming from the Lower Mainland and other parts of Canada for the winter … and they were doing a lot of break and enters. We managed eventually to drive them out of town — now they’ve gone on to some other place no doubt.”

Some likely moved on to Vernon. “We’re a destination,” says Insp. Steve McVarnock, officer in charge of the Vernon/North Okanagan detachment. “The same reason that people like you and I come here to live and work is the reason that a lot of people will come here to hang out. We deal with a lot of criminal transient types.”

According to McVarnock, part of the disparity in rates between the Valley and Vancouver is actually displacement. When police in Vancouver, mindful of the need to clean things up for 2010, crack down, hookers and drug dealers just migrate. “If you’re being pressured to move on somewhere,” he says, “where would you go?”

A recent study following up on a 2005 Kelowna undercover operation code-named E-Palace (see sidebar) supports the contention that most of the problems are coming from outside the Valley, although McKinnon expressed surprise at the extent of the homegrown element — 23 per cent of those arrested were born in the Okanagan.

Nevertheless, McKinnon says the criminal transients are into “open drug trafficking, which is the biggest thing … crack cocaine addicts — and how do we feed this addiction … They’re into shoplifting, they’re into stealing cars, they’re into break and enters, they’re into thefts. It goes on and on and that’s what drew the numbers up.”

Wherever the bad guys are from, all the top cops agree that the public perception about drug-related crime indicated by our informal poll was consistent both with their own polling and with reality.

“Break and enters and thefts,” says Fudge, “you can almost say they’re directly drug related.”
McKinnon agrees with the connection between property theft and drugs and ties it in with Kelowna’s auto theft problem. “They steal that car then they go to other areas to commit break and enters or commit theft from out of garages, right off front lawns or from out of vehicles.”

Recalling a series of incidents last year, he says people need to be aware, for example, when going for a walk on the Greenway. Bad guys are opportunists, he warns. They know you’re going to be gone half-an-hour or more. They smash the car window with a rock, “they grab a purse and now they’re gone with your credit cards and the game is on.”

McVarnock emphasises the power of addiction. “It’s a different animal we’ve had to deal with than 10 to 15 years in the past. If you add crack cocaine or crystal meth to the mix, it’s a whole different person … Look at search warrants, nine times out of 10 we’re taking illegal firearms from these people, from their houses, from their vehicles.” He adds that organized crime and drugs are linked and that these groups “thrive on intimidation, violence, consequences.” Disrupt the crime group and there’s a positive effect on a whole range of crime stats.

When Vernon’s very own crime ring, the Greeks, was taken down, murders dropped to zero, robbery and assault numbers also dropped and drugs were hard to get — for a month or two. Chillingly though, McVarnock compares these groups to dandelions — kill one here and more sprout up all around. “They’re no different than legal entrepreneurs,” he says. “They see opportunity. One business organization gets taken down, there’s a business opportunity” for somebody else.

So if perception meets reality on the issue of drugs, why is there such a gap when it comes to the overall impression of crime? Our poll indicates that people sense crime rates are rising when for the last few years the reverse is true.

All three cops are quick to credit the media. “Watch any broadcast and what does it start off with,” Fudge asks. “The latest homicide or whatever. It’s either a murder or a fire or a car accident and so people’s perception is crime is rampant when, in fact, we live in a relatively safe community.”

However, 60 per cent of the people who responded to our poll reported being the victim of crime — mostly some form of theft. And both Fudge and McVarnock suggest that under-reporting of crime, particularly property crime, may be contributing to the perception. In an independent survey conducted for the Penticton detachment, 44 per cent of respondents indicated that they had been the victim of a crime and not reported it. “Public perception may very well be based on that unreported crime that they’re aware of,” says Fudge.

“Do people not report anymore or report less because they have a perception that we will do nothing about it? It’s something we wrestle with,” says McVarnock. “I get whispers of that through the business community. Unless there’s a file number required for insurance,” he says, many crimes go unreported. And “if you see somebody cranking up in an alley … it won’t be reported to us, but it forms an impression of crime.”

Regardless of perception, the facts show that crime is down in a host of areas. Among the most significant examples for 2006 was a 33 per cent drop in Vernon’s reported break and enters, a 37 per cent decline in assaults (excluding sexual) and 29 per cent fewer auto thefts. Robberies were down 21 per cent in Kelowna where drug offences dropped 20 per cent and vehicle thefts were down 32 per cent. Penticton experienced a 24 per cent decline in B&Es plus a 40 per cent drop in robberies and a 55 per cent reduction in reported sexual assaults.

While the numbers rose in some areas, such as non-sexual assaults up 26 per cent in Penticton and sex offences up 27 per cent in Kelowna, the general trend was an overall lower crime rate.

All the top cops advise caution when looking at statistics. McKinnon sites the 2006 sex offence number for Kelowna where closer investigation showed that 51 of the 118 cases involved Kelowna police helping other detachments or agencies and 32 were historical — crimes committed years ago and only just reported. Enforcement priorities also have a bearing. On paper, Penticton looks like the impaired driving capital of the Valley, but Fudge says that’s because he’s made it a priority. “We’ve put a lot of emphasis on training officers and, to be frank, we’ve put a lot of pressure on them to get out there and pick up more impaired drivers.”

In total, however, Penticton’s Criminal Code offences dropped nine per cent in 2006 and Fudge credits the detachment’s participation in a new crime reduction strategy. “What we’re focusing on is that small percentage of individuals who are committing a large proportion of crimes …. Some studies indicate that as low as four or five per cent are committing as much as 45 per cent. I don’t think that should come as a surprise to anybody. So what we’re trying to do is focus on those particular individuals and really hit them hard with enforcement.”

Kelowna and Vernon are following similar strategies with the use of full-time crime analysts who McVarnock says, “pinpoint where the hot spots are, who the bad guys are, where they live, if a warrant is outstanding.” Armed with this information, police can target high volume offenders.

“We had a list,” says Fudge. “If they were on probation or parole or they had been released on conditions from the court, we kept an eye on them to make sure they were following those conditions. And when they weren’t, we arrested them and brought them back to court — rearrested them and brought them back to court — and finally they went to jail for short periods of time. As a result, those crimes that they’re normally committing — it’s all about drugs, all about feeding a drug habit — dropped off.”

For those hard-core individuals who are never going to change, Fudge says the system must simply warehouse them. “But there’s another group out there that perhaps can be helped. So the second part of this strategy is trying to deal with that in some coordinated fashion. We’re working with the Crown’s office and with Pathways and Mental Health and Community Corrections … trying to determine if this individual is ready to give up this lifestyle — and if so, what we can do to help them along the way.”

The crime reduction strategy is now a top priority for Vernon, Kelowna and Penticton, but it remains a largely unpublicized initiative. All three chiefs admit that a perception gap exists and plan various means of addressing it from higher police visibility to increased enforcement in selected areas. And without exception, they want to get out the message that their communities are safe places to work and live.

Perception — reality?

Learn more about crime in the Valley in the March issue of Okanagan Life - on newstands now!