Edmonton police release data on violent crime increase amid calls for bail reform

Data from Edmonton Police Service show recent spikes in violent crime and crime severity in the city.

Edmonton's violent crime rate (per 100,000 people) increased by 16.5 per cent last year, according to statistics EPS shared at a media briefing Friday morning.

The number of violent criminal incidents in Edmonton rose from 12,909 in 2021 to 15,040 last year.

"2022 represents the highest number of violent criminal incidents ever reported in a single year," said Sean Tout, EPS's executive director of information management and intelligence.

Tout said the trend has carried into 2023, with violent criminal occurrences increasing by about six per cent in the first quarter of this year, compared to the first quarter of last year.

The numbers of some types of crimes, like sexual assault and kidnapping, decreased last year, but robberies, harassing communications and level one assault, the least serious type,have all increased by more than 20 per cent.

Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said the statistics are concerning.

"That is why we have increased police funding," he said.

Bail reform calls

EPS also shared data on offenders' involvement with Edmonton police after being released from custody in light of recent advocacy for changes to the federal bail system.

"It demonstrates where the EPS has seen an increase in violent crime, the types of crime committedand the number of preventable incidents that have harmed citizens and officers as a result of violent offenders being arrested and quickly released," EPS said in a news release.

EPS unveiled the statistics as provincial and territorial premiers met virtually with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to discuss bail reform.

Alberta's justice minister, Tyler Shandro, and other provincial politicians, have been calling on the federal government to amend the Criminal Code of Canada, reversing changes that made obtaining bail easier.

In 2019, the LiberalspassedBill C-75, which made changes to the Criminal Code. The changes were intended to streamline the bail process, address the overrepresentation of racialized people behind bars and emphasize a "principle of restraint," ensuring release was favoured over detention, when appropriate.

EPS compiled two sets of statistics, each tracking people who were involved in police occurrences after being arrested and released for certain types of crimes.

The numbers are difficult to compare because they cover time periods of slightly different lengths. One set tracked occurrences over three years while the other tracked them over three years and one month.

Of the 2,880 violent crime offenders who were arrested and released in 2017, 1,784 60 per cent became involved with police again.

Of the 3,647 violent crime offenders who were arrested and released in 2020, 2,482 68 per cent becameinvolved with police again.

Bail changes not fully to blame: experts

Dan Jones, chair of the justice studies program at NorQuest College and a retired EPS inspector, said many factors, not just changes to the federal bail system, have been affecting crime statisticssince 2017.

He pointed to the pandemic, economicsand social issues, like addiction.

"I think we have to really unpack them and be very, very careful and cautious that we don't blame a single thing for these increases in crime severity," he said.

Temitope Oriola, a criminology professor at the University of Alberta and president-elect of the Canadian Sociological Association, said there have long been calls to keep the small number of people who commit most of the crimes in custody for longer, but those attempts, what criminologists call "selective incapacitation," can be costly and tend to reinforce existing social inequalities.

In other words, he said, they would affect people who have experienced poverty, homelessness, abuse, addiction and mental health problems.

"It's a matter of root causes," he said.

Federal Justice Minister David Lametti has said the government will "move forward quickly on targeted reforms" to the bail system, making it more difficult for repeat violent offenders to be released from custody as they wait for trials.

The minister has said changes will be introduced this spring.