Municipal politicians in Vernon met with law enforcement to discuss safety on Friday after a handful of high profile crimes raised questions about the level of crime in Vernon.
In one incident, three young people were attacked by another group while walking down a Vernon street early in the morning. In another incident, two brothers were stabbed.
Speaking after Friday’s meeting, Mayor Akbal Mund indicated the city was planning to maintain the status quo.
“I don’t think we have to further our police patrols or anything like that. The RCMP are doing a great job,” said Mund.
The mayor is urging people to look at statistics and not get caught up in sensationalism around individual incidents.
“I think people feel pretty safe here. When incidents are blown up over social media without fact people can assume what they want,” said Mund.
The latest statistics from the Vernon/North Okanagan RCMP detachment from April through June show the police were busier in Vernon dealing with more files this year (4,184) than during the same three months in 2015 (3,797).
However, when you look at different crimes, it is a mixed bag. The number of assault files was up slightly with 86 during the second quarter of this year compared to 79 in the same quarter last year.
However, some property crimes like thefts from vehicles and commercial break-ins rose sharply compared to April, May and June of last year. Last year in the second quarter there were 110 thefts from vehicles compared to 172 this year during that time period.
Meanwhile, other issues like impaired driving were down during the most recent quarter compared with that time period in 2015.
For his part, the mayor said he feels safe in Vernon.
“I think if I asked a lot of people that, they would tell you the same thing. We live in a very safe community in Vernon,” said Mund.
Nationally, Statistics Canada says the crime rate per 100,000 people rose three per cent last year, but the youth crime rate dropped.
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