Crime in rural Alberta town growing at a faster rate than elsewhere in Canada: Maclean’s

Crime in Wetaskiwin, Alta., a town of 15,000 about an hour’s drive south of Edmonton, is getting worse at a faster rate than any other Canadian urban area, a Maclean’s analysis has shown.

From 2012 to 2017, Wetaskiwin’s crime severity index (CSI) — a measure used by Statistics Canada that accounts for the seriousness of crimes as well as their number — increased 100.63 points to 257.54.

For comparison, Red Deer, the community with the second-fastest growing CSI, saw an increase of 58.65 points over five years. Canada’s overall CSI fell 2.56 points to 72.87 over the same time period.

Meanwhile, Estevan, Sask. had the fastest-dropping crime severity index in the country with a 58.54-point reduction.

The community with the highest overall CSI is North Battleford, Sask., which held the same dubious honour last year. The industrial and agricultural community’s crime severity index was 371.58 in 2017, 38 points higher than Thompson, Man., Canada’s second-most dangerous place.

Click here to read the full story on Macleans.ca.

On this week’s episode of The Big Story, Aaron Hutchins went to Wetaskiwin to investigate, and he found a community that knows solutions are needed, but isn’t sure where to start – or if the town’s leadership is even willing to acknowledge the problem and act. It’s the same pattern other cities have faced, and the question is where it goes from here.