Criminal code violations in the Halifax Regional Municipality are down 7.61 per cent from this time last year, according to third quarter statistics released by the Halifax Regional Police and the Halifax-district RCMP on Monday.
According to the report, property crime is down 9.54 per cent, while other criminal code violations such as prostitution or weapons charges declined 7.61 per cent. Violent crime, including homicide, robbery and assaults held steady at 2,786 incidents, up 0.25 per cent over 2010.
“I think what it says is that, even though we saw some increases in violent crime in the first half of the year, that our overall strategy is working,” said HRP spokesman Const. Brian Palmeter. “(But) we still have work to do. We still have to target the people engaged in violence within our community.”
Some categories of crime have seen a spike, however. Motor vehicle thefts have increased by 21.5 per cent to 502 cases this year. Liquor Act violations had one of the largest increase, from 1019 cases in 2010 to 1462 cases so far this year –– a jump of over 43 per cent.
Halifax has also suffered six more homicides and nine more attempted murders so far this year. Drug offences have also seen a slight jump, up 23 or 2.3 per cent.
“Sometimes we have (investigations) that we act on very quickly, others take long periods of time,” said Palmeter.
Police also released impaired driving statistics for October yesterday. In that month, police charged 84 people, 69 men and 15 women, with driving under the influence.
