SUNDRE – While Alberta’s crime severity index was on average down across the province, the Sundre RCMP detachment reported a modest increase as per data recently released by Statistics Canada
The detachment's boundary spans a swath of land primarily encompassing large parts of Mountain View and Clearwater counties as well as Sundre, but also small portions of Red Deer County and the Municipal District of Bighorn’s forestry area.
Its jurisdiction includes communities like Bearberry as well as Bergen and stretches east to the Eagle Hill area, north as far as Crammond Road past James River, northwest into Ya Ha Tinda, and south towards the Didsbury RCMP detachment's region near the Fallen Timber recreational area.
The overall CSI reported by the Sundre detachment in 2024 was 131.83, up from 125.32 the year prior representing an increase of 5.19 per cent.
The violent CSI also showed a modest albeit slightly higher increase of 5.83 per cent, while the non-violent CSI increased by 4.82 per cent.
Sgt. Courtney Harding, the detachment’s commander, said when reached for comment that leading up to the year-over-year increase in 2024 compared with 2023 was a decrease in the average CSI from 2019 to 2022, which notably occurred during the pandemic.
In 2024, offences relating to instances of breaking and entering accounted for 19.9 per cent of the Sundre detachment's CSI, with a total of 51 offences, up from 44 in 2023.
There was also one homicide in 2024, the same as in 2023, which represented the second largest contributor to the CSI increase.
And last year, instances of fraud accounted for 10 per cent of the cases that contributed to the CSI with a total of 61 offences, up from 53 in 2023.
“The majority of these reported frauds would be cyber crime-related,” she said.
Further elaborating, the sergeant said the top three crime categories that drove the increase in the Sundre RCMP detachment's area from 2023 to 2024 were: other sexual offences with a CSI change of 8.7 or an offence difference of nine; break and enter with a CSI change of 4.0 or an offence difference of eight; as well as extortion with a CSI change of 1.4 or an offence difference of three.
The top two decreases from 2023 to 2024 were kidnapping/hostage/abduction with a CSI change of -2.1 or an offence difference of one fewer cases, as well as sexual assaults with a CSI change of -2.1 or an offence difference of three fewer instances.
Harding said she dove further into the files behind the top driver for the CSI increase of other sexual offences and noted that four of those investigations were in relation to sexual interference or (sex) crimes against children, and another for an indecent act in public.
“A couple of these reported crimes were historical in nature, meaning the alleged crimes occurred in previous years, only they were reported in 2024,” she added.
Another four were sexual assault investigations and five of the total nine files resulted in criminal code charges being laid.
“The remaining four files were concluded as insufficient evidence to lay charges, or the complainant/victim no longer wished to proceed with a police investigation.”
According to the Statistics Canada report, the crime score in Alberta RCMP jurisdictions is the second lowest it has been since 2015.
The CSI tracks both volume and seriousness of police-reported crime and assigns weights to different offences based on how severe they are – more serious crimes carry a higher weight than less serious crimes.
“Jurisdictions with small population sizes can generally see higher fluctuations in their CSI score year-to-year. This is because even small changes in crime, especially if they are violent crimes, can have a significant impact on the scores,” reads part of a press release.
There are 147 RCMP jurisdictions in Alberta that are measured for the CSI. These jurisdictions are policed by the 113 RCMP detachments across the province. Of the 147 jurisdictions policed by the RCMP, 95 had a decrease in the CSI from 2023 to 2024.
The top contributor to Alberta’s CSI score is break and enters, which make up 17.67 per cent of the scoring. Although break and enters are the highest cause of the CSI in the province, the number is down compared to 2023 with there being 875 fewer break and enters reported to the RCMP.
