RCMP blocking College Road in July. (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

By Liam Verster

Q3 Crime Rates

Crimes rose on an annual basis in the third quarter

Nov 13, 2024 | 2:27 PM

Vernon has seen criminal activity increase on an annual basis.

An RCMP report to Vernon City Council stated the third quarter of 2024 (July 1 to September 30), saw a total of 1,725 criminal code offences in Vernon. Those included 319 violent offences, and 981 property crimes.

Comparatively, the third quarter (Q3) of 2023 saw a total of 1,638 criminal code offences in Vernon, including 302 violent offences and 883 property crimes.

“Unfortunately, during the this time, and not solely accounting for this [violent crime] increase, we’ve had three homicide deaths in the quarterly reporting period in the City of Vernon. All three are still being investigated at this time,” Blake McLeod, Superintendent of the Vernon North Okanagan RCMP, told Vernon City Council at the regular meeting Tuesday, Nov. 12.

“There is several people, we believe, involved in the majority of these [property] crimes. One actually was arrested with a bunch of stolen vehicles down in the Penticton area, and I believe that person is still in custody, and they would have been responsible for quite a few of our local offences.”

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McLeod added a recent police operation recovered numerous stolen items, though that would not be counted within the statistics presented.

Coldstream had similar results, with 115 criminal code offences in Q3 2024 compared to 86 during the same period the year prior. Violent offences were flat on an annual basis at 26 reported, though the RCMP noted property crimes increased from 37 in Q3 of 2023 to 59 in the same three-month period this year.

Vernon Rural meanwhile had 82 criminal code offences in the third quarter of 2024, down from 109 in the same period of 2023. The most recent quarter saw 20 violent crimes and 42 property crimes in the area, down from 29 and 54, respectively, on an annual basis.

RCMP noted there were 2,328 criminal code offences throughout the entire North Okanagan in Q3 2024, which was also up from 2,262 offences int he same period of 2023.

Though criminal offences were up in Vernon, calls for service were down.

The RCMP stated there were 4,959 calls for service within Vernon in Q3 of 2024, down from 5,083 in the same period the year before.

Vernon Rural also saw calls for service decline from 544 in Q3 of 2023 to 484 in the same period this year.

That wasn’t the case for Coldstream though, as calls for service were recorded at 405, up from 378 in the same quarter in 2023.

In total there were 8,086 calls for service throughout the North Okanagan in Q3, which was also up from the 8,025 recorded in the during the same timeframe the previous year.

Vernon North Okanagan RCMP no longer provided breakdowns in the types of crimes reported in the quarterly update, nor did it provide details about high-profile crimes police responded to during the quarter.

McLeod noted the Integrated Crisis Response Team was continuing its work, responding to 480 mental health incidents within Vernon and Coldstream and 85 in the rest of the North Okanagan in the thrid quarter.

Vernon City Council accepted the RCMP report for information.