Vernon’s violent offence rates falling, but crime still up

May 11, 2025 | 6:00 AM

The number violent offences in Vernon are going down, but there has been a rise in overall crime.

A quarterly report from the RCMP, presented to Vernon City Council at the regular meeting Monday, may 12, said there were 1,321 criminal code offences in the city within the first three months (Q1) of the year, with 237 of them described as violent.

The report stated the overall offences were up when compared to the first quarter of 2024, which saw police respond to 1,248 criminal code violations. However, violent offences were down when compared to 2024’s Q1 report of 259.

When comparing Q1 2025 to the same period the year before, the report noted Vernon saw an increase in property crime, with 744 versus 694, and an increase in traffic violations, 691 to 676.

Additionally, calls for service were down from 4,062 in Q1 2024 to 3,991 this year.

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“I think the critical thing here is our overall crime and serious crimes and others are staying fairly flat even though our community is growing,” Victor Cumming, Mayor of Vernon, told Vernon Matters following Monday’s meeting.

“It shows that our policing is solid. [Crime rates] are higher than any of us would like, but it’s staying flat as the community is growing.”

The report also stated there were 454 calls related to mental health files in the first three months of this year, compared to 485 in the same period of 2024. The RCMP could not attribute the decrease in calls to the work done by the Crisis Response Team, but the Mayor did applaud the work done by that team.

“We’re really pleased that we have that service, we couldn’t have a more critical service in the city,” Cumming said.

“Mental health crises are a huge issue throughout the province, throughout Canada, and to have that service is remarkable.”

The report noted Vernon North Okanagan RCMP was using targeted policing models to investigate prolific offenders, reduce crime, intervene and address repeat violent offenders within the community.

Vernon City Council accepted the report for information Monday.

by Liam Verster

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