Williams Lake has been named as Canada’s seventh most dangerous place by Macleans magazine followed by Quesnel.
That’s compared to last year’s rating as the fourth most dangerous.
Mayor Walt Cobb calls it good news.
“Thanks to the extra work and that extra force we got from the RCMP we’re heading in the right direction,” he said.
“It’s been a lot of work by our RCMP members to get things under control, and it’s been a long time coming. I’m looking forward to us being way down lower yet.”
Cobb said they are working with the Province and with Statistics Canada to get the numbers recorded so it reflects the larger community other than just Williams Lake.
Williams Lake’s crime severity index according to Macleans dropped from 222 last year to 219.
Quesnel which was not listed last year also showed a decreasing crime severity index.
Williams Lake, however, according to Macleans still ranked at fourth for violent crime and this time at number one for homicide. Showing an increase was firearms offences and break and enters.
“We get a monthly report from the RCMP and we have another report that should be coming out any time, and I’m told that we’re even lower so it’s good news,” Cobb said.
“Macleans needs to clean up their act on how they report some of this stuff because it’s a little deceiving on all the information they put in there and the ratings and how they rate them. I don’t even why they do it because it’s not a true reflection of a community.”
In terms of the homicide rate, Cobb said there again the rating is based per 100,000 population and Williams Lake has a population of only about 11,000. It is, therefore, he said that just one incident results in an increased rate.
Taking a look at the numbers:
2019
Out of 237 Canadian communities 10 most dangerous places based on all crime:
- North Battleford, SK
- Thompson, MB
- Wetaskiwin, AB
- Prince Albert and area, SK
- Portage la Prairie, MB
- Red Deer, AB
- Williams Lake, BC
- Quesnel, BC
- Langley, BC
- Prince George, BC
Williams Lake:
- CSI (crime severity index) 219
- All crime #7, Quesnel #8
- Violent Crime #4
- Homicide #1
- Sexual Assault #5
- Assault #9
- Firearms Offences: #16, Quesnel #14
- Robbery #13
- Breaking and Entering #8, Quesnel #6
- Fraud #87, Quesnel #21
- Impaired Driving #39, Quesnel #14
- Cannabis Trafficking #32
- Cocaine Trafficking #15
- Other Drug Trafficking #70, Quesnel #17
- Youth Crime #11
2018
Out of 229 Canadian communities 10 most dangerous places based on all crime:
- North Battleford, SK
- Thompson, MB
- Prince Albert, SK
- Williams Lake, BC
- Red Deer, AB
- Langley, BC
- Portage la Prairie, MB
- Wetaskiwin, AB
- Vernon, BC
- Selkirk, MB.