March 13,2002

Crime: Tiny Information Bulletin Hides Big News

The Campbell government has dropped crime reduction as a government goal. That shocking discovery is found by comparing the "service plans" of the Campbell government with the "performance plans" of the former government.

A tiny "information bulletin" was put out by Solicitor General Rich Coleman on Friday, March 8th. In the new speak of the New Era, some news releases are called information bulletins. Whatever they are called, it is rare to see a government release a good news story on a Friday - a day usually reserved to take out the garbage in the hope that there will be little coverage over a weekend.

Coleman's tiny bulletin simply announced that a publication titled Police and Crime Statistics 1991-2000 was available on the Internet. Usually government would issue a news release with some of the highlights of such a report. The absence of highlights is reason to look through the report. On page 29 the report says "The B.C. crime rate fell by 3% in 2000. Overall, B.C.'s crime rate has declined 26% since 1991." Could it be that Coleman's news release contained no information on the crime report because it revealed good news for the term of the NDP government?

The Crime Report noted "In 2000, crimes against persons (violent offences) represented 11% of all Criminal Code offences; crimes against property accounted for 57%; while the remaining 32% were other crimes. These proportions have remained about the same over the last decade." Even with the dramatic reduction in reported crime, BC continues to have the highest crime rate in Canada. There is room for much more improvement.

The Campbell government frequently refers to the last ten years by way of introduction to bad mouthing the former government. No such criticism can be found in the Crime Report. The rich data of the Crime Report provides the opportunity to measure whether the incidence of crime continues to decline in the New Era. However, checking the "service plans" for both the Solicitor General and the Attorney General reveals that crime reduction is not mentioned as a goal and crime rates are not used as measures. Those two offices were one under the former government. Under the NDP "service plans" were called "performance plans". The top two goals in the last NDP performance plan for Ministry of the Attorney General (pdf) were: 1) Strengthen the ability of communities to reduce crime; and 2) Reduce the level of crime and in particular serious and violent crime.

Why would the Campbell government abandon crime reduction as a goal while making no reference to crime rates as a performance measure? Could it be that the Campbell government is more interested in cutting services than in protecting the public? The "service plan" for the Solicitor General makes ample reference to measures of cost reduction. In fact, one of its four goals is to lower overall operating costs. Lower costs are great, but has the Campbell government decided to lower those costs by increasing the risk to your safety? The change in goals and measurements suggest real cause for concern.