Crime is on the rise in Hope but charges aren’t, according to the most recent data available from the RCMP.
Statistics Canada recently released crime rates and related stats for every city in the province of B.C. It shows that while the number of incidents rose from 2017 to 2018, the number of people charged actually dropped.
Hope is broken into two categories — like many other cities around the province — rural and municipal.
Within the municipality, there were 1,315 incidents reported in Hope in 2018, the highest it’s been in the five years shown in the data. That’s more than a 10 per cent increase over 2017, which saw 1,196 incidents. Five years ago, that number was 877.
The stats show there has been a drastic drop in the number of people being charged over the past five years. In 2014, 175 people were charged. But in 2018, that number plummeted to 101. Two of those charged were youth.
And in rural areas of Hope, a similar pattern is shown. Reported incidents of crime have risen steadily since 2014 when it was at 187. In 2018, the number rose to 273.
The total number of people charged in rural Hope was 48 in 2018, the lowest number in five years. Again, two of those charged were youth.