Both the Village of Masset and the Village of Queen Charlotte saw a drop in their Crime Severity index (CSI) and a five-year low in the number of incidents responded to in 2013, according to numbers from Statistics Canada.
The CSI, which examines both the amount of crime and the relative seriousness of the crimes responded to by RCMP, in Masset was at a five-year low in 2013 after falling 32.9 per cent from 2012 to sit at 124.3, a number that is well below those of the past. Along with an overall drop, the violent crime severity index fell by more than 51 per cent, from an index of 262.06 last year to 127.27 this year. The crime rate in Masset in 2013 sat at 15,732 incidents per 100,000 population, another five-year low for the community.
Masset RCMP responded to a total of 320 calls, the lowest in the past five years, and cleared 169 resulting in 59 adults and eight youth being charged. Those figures put the weighted clearance rate of 50.38, a five-year high for the detachment.
The CSI in Queen Charlotte fell 33.85 per cent compared to 2012 to sit at 82.1, a number that is just above the five-year low of 79.7 recorded in 2011. The violent crime severity index, however, did hit a five-year low of 75.51, down 17.63 per cent from the previous year.
Much like Masset, RCMP in Queen Charlotte responded to fewer incidents than any time in the past five years, with 194 taking place in 2013. Queen Charlotte RCMP cleared 95 cases resulting in 38 adults and two youth being charged. While the weighted clearance rate in Queen Charlotte was up 27.77 per cent from 2012 to sit at 51.07, the number that is still below the clearance rates of 2010 and 2011.