BACKGROUND: Terrace’s Crime Severity Index spiked 25 per cent last year but officials urge caution when interpreting the data. The annual figures released by Statistics Canada put Terrace crime in ninth place on a list of 175 B.C. municipalities. Last year’s figure of 166.91 is in contrast to the four years prior when the number fluctuated between 131 and 142.

By comparison Terrace’s 2018 CSI is roughly double the B.C average of 87.67

“In smaller communities it doesn’t take much to create elevations in the Crime Severity Index year to year,” said Terrace RCMP Inspector Jayson Lucash in an email to the Terrace Standard. “In Terrace for example, one violent death is much more impactful to the CSI than it would be in a bigger city centre with a much higher population. One death per capita in a town of 10,000 would be the same as 10 deaths in a city of 100,000.”

FULL STORY: Terrace Crime Severity Index spikes 25 per cent