Lethbridge ranked 26th in list of 229 most dangerous centres in Canada: report

A new report ranks the city of Lethbridge as the 26 most-dangerous place in Canada but a local crime expert suggested people do not need to be alarmed by the ranking.

Using Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index data from 2016, Maclean’s magazine recently compiled a list of what it says are Canada’s most dangerous places. The interactive tool lets users see how various places rank for overall crime as well as for offences like homicides and sexual assaults.

Despite Lethbridge earning what some might say is a high ranking in the “all crime” category, an instructor at Lethbridge College’s School of Justice Studies suggested the ranking doesn’t necessarily reflect crime trends being seen in the city.

“Our homicide rates are down from previous years, assaults are down, our sexual assaults are down, robberies are down,” Aaron Eyjolfson told Global News on Wednesday. “The only thing that went up in the violent portion was firearms.”

Lethbridge was ranked 56th out of 229 places in the “violent crimes” category.

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“Do we deal with crimes that larger cities deal with? For sure,” said Scott Woods, deputy chief with the the Lethbridge Police Service. “But again it’s proportionate. It’s nothing that any others cities aren’t seeing.”

Eyjolfson says taking into account all crimes, Lethbridge shouldn’t be considered “dangerous” but crime is still a serious problem in the community.

“Drugs are very significant,” Eyjolfson said. “When you look at the other numbers, look at the property offences – our numbers in terms of property offences are way up.

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“Our break-and-enters are growing, our thefts are growing, our frauds are growing. Alcohol is usually correlated with violence. With drugs, it’s usually correlated with property crime.”

Lethbridge police have also said they are dealing with an increase in drug-related property crimes.