Surrey is on pace for a 7% drop in property crime for 2015.
The largest decline in crime statistics in the city during the year’s second quarter was for business break and enter, which fell 20% compared with the same period last year. Residential break-and-enter property crime is also on pace for a 12% drop, and both theft of motor vehicles and thefts from motor vehicles are lower compared with second-quarter numbers from 2014.
While overall crime in Surrey is on pace to rise 6% in 2015, Surrey RCMP Sgt. Dale Carr said the property crime numbers are promising.
“We have noticed a decrease; we’re always cautious when we see decreases about standing up and pounding our chests a little too early because crime is very cyclical,” Carr said. “And we could experience an increase at any time because oftentimes property crime – a large portion of it – can be a result of one or two individuals committing a whole bunch of crimes. And if you manage to nail down one of those individuals you could see a drastic drop.”
Carr said Surrey RCMP has launched a number of projects to tackle property crime, including one called the High Risk Location program. He said the program pinpoints certain trouble spots around the city before analysts delve deeper into the data to look for potential causes, with the idea of future prevention in mind. The property crime unit is also holding biweekly meetings in which officers are held accountable for the program’s progress.
“[Officers] have to come with a clear objective for the next two weeks and results from the past two weeks. And they report to the superintendent in charge of investigative services.”
District 4 (Cloverdale/Port Kells) has been targeted by Surrey RCMP as a hotbed for business property crime. Although overall property crime in the district is on pace for a 3% rise for 2015, Carr said a number of initiatives have been put in place to specifically target the north Surrey enclave, which has a high number of commercial industrial yards.
“We’ve visited over 205 businesses in that area and are really working on communicating and engaging the community and showing that we’re very interested in taking all the information back to our overall crime reduction strategy.”
Anita Huberman, chief executive officer of the Surrey Board of Trade, said she’s happy to see the property crime numbers falling and hopes it is a sign of things to come.
“It takes continued and consistent efforts to ensure that businesses have security procedures and equipment,” Huberman said. “I know that violent crime has increased and, yes, that is very concerning. The Surrey RCMP has been focusing on arrests and charges that will hopefully drive crime down as we continue to apply significant pressure to these offenders.”
Carr also noted a police program in which officers canvass businesses in specific areas, interviewing owners and employees and also educating them about safety precautions they can take to deter thieves.
While Surrey’s numbers have dropped, commercial break-and-enter property crime rates are on the rise in Vancouver. According to Vancouver Police Department (VPD) statistics, in 2014 there were 2,333 reports of break-and-enter property crime at places of business, which represents a 25.4% increase from 2013. A VPD crime map shows a large number of commercial break-and-enter property crime incidents have been concentrated in the Coal Harbour area and in the Olympic Village area of Mount Pleasant.
VPD spokesman Const. Brian Montague acknowledged the rise but noted overall Criminal Code of Canada offences declined last year compared to 2013. He added that the best thing businesses can do is call police to set up a time for them to stop by and assess their property for potential weak spots.
“It’s tough because every business is different,” Montague said. “Obviously money is an issue, and they may not have the ability to install a high-tech alarm system and surveillance system or cameras or other precautionary or deterrent methods such as bars on the window or film on the glass to prevent the glass from being broken.
“You can never guarantee that someone isn’t going to break into your place, but there are products on the market that make it much more difficult or would make a business less attractive because of precautions that they’ve taken, but we also understand that costs money.”
Metro Vancouver property crime
In Richmond, there were fewer reports of break-and-enter property crime from businesses up until August 8 of this year (151 incidents) compared to the same period last year (160). In Burnaby, incidents of commercial break-and-enter property crime fell by 4% last year compared with the number in 2013, according to RCMP. In Abbotsford up until February of this year, commercial break-and-enter reports were down slightly (35 incidents) compared to the same period in 2014 (37).
