Crime rates high in Waterloo Region but clearing crime is low: Stats Canada

Crime rates in Waterloo Region continue to be among the highest in Ontario, while the clearing of criminal cases is among the lowest.

At Wednesday’s meeting of the Waterloo Regional Police Board they discussed the 2023 reported crime data from Statistics Canada.

According to the report, the Crime Severity Index in Waterloo Region decreased by four per cent from 2022 to 2023, going from 79 to 75.5, but is still the third highest among the 12 largest police services in the province. Those include places like Toronto, Windsor, London and Niagara.

The Crime Severity Index measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime in Canada, and has a base index value of 100 for 2006. It includes violent offences, crimes against people or property, and other Criminal Code violations.

The Stats Canada report also noted an 11 per cent drop in robberies and a 33 per cent increase in the use of firearms to commit an offence.

Clearance rates

Weighted clearance rates represent the number of criminal incidents solved by police. Out of the 12 other large police services, Waterloo Region ranked second last when it came to clearance rates in 2023 and last in violent crime clearance rates.

“But I can say we're dedicated to taking every investigative avenue possible to not only meet the clearance rate to capacities, but also helping victims of crime in anyway possible,” WRPS Chief Mark Crowell said at the board meeting.

One factor, he explained, is the number of officers in a community as big as Waterloo Region.

There are fewer than 800 officers to serve more than 600,000 people. Statistics Canada ranked the region second last compared to other policing services.

Crowell said they are dedicated to solving more crimes but are doing the best with what they have.

“There's no acceptable level of non-cleared crime. There's also major complexities in terms of our investigators capacity,” he said. “Within the comparative landscape, Waterloo Regional Police has the second lowest officer to population ratio amongst those featured and but we also had the highest number of violations per officer and the second highest clearance rate per officer.”

The report concluded that crime reflects many factors that “extend beyond the rise in criminal activity”.

“Such as the community’s trust in reporting to police, the ease and services available when reporting, available police resources, police service priorities, crime prevention measures, targeted enforcement practices, and other avenues of reporting crime that do not get relayed to the police,” the report read.

Crowell added strategic enforcement, encouraging citizen reporting and public education will continue moving forward.