PENTICTON'S CRIME RATE FALLING, BUT STILL EXCEEDS B.C. AVERAGE

Penticton's municipal crime rate dropped by nearly 11 per cent in
2007, although the figure remains well above the provincial average,
which is at a 30-year low.

According to figures released Tuesday by the provincial government,
B.C.'s crime rate fell for the third consecutive year to 104 criminal
offences per 100,000 people, a nine per cent decrease from 2006.

Within the city of Penticton, however, the crime rate was 138 offences
per 100,000 people.

But the Peach City's rate is skewed, because it's based on resident
population and doesn't take tourists into consideration, said
Penticton RCMP Insp. Dan Fudge.

So even if the city's population is doubled for four months of the
year, "That's never taken into account in this crime rate.

"Places that are a tourist destination," Fudge continued, "often have
a higher crime rate than others because of that."

SFU criminologist Rob Gordon said while a declining provincial crime
rate is undoubtedly good news, the numbers don't tell the whole story,
because some figures, such as drug and motor-vehicle offences, are
simply a measure of police activity. Also, the data is mined from only
those crimes that are reported to police.

What he focuses on instead are trends that relate to property
offences, break-and-enters and violent crime.

Indeed, in 2007, Penticton saw decreases in commercial
break-and-enters and property crimes of eight per cent and 11 per
cent, respectively, as compared to 2006.

However, residential break-and-enters rose and the violent crime rate
increased by 1.5 per cent, the third such consecutive hike.

"It's a concern, no question about it," Fudge said about violent
crimes, adding the downtown bar scene is now under officers'
microscopes.

"We think that that's where a lot of this is occurring - outside the
bars and so on."

Also of note in the provincial crime report is the ever-increasing
drug crime rate, a category in which B.C. leads the country. There
were nearly 29,000 such offences in the province in 2007, a 10-year
high. While numbers weren't provided for individual cities, Fudge is
under no illusion that Penticton bucked the trend.

"To be perfectly frank, we have a significant drug issue in this
community, in this area, and I think that's reflected in our crime
rate and so on."

Fudge said his detachment has a three-person drug squad in place to
tackle the problem, but, "I'm not naive enough to think that
enforcement alone is going to solve our drug problem, because it isn't."

Rather, there needs to be more rehabilitation and counselling
opportunities available, he said, along with better drug awareness
education for children.

B.C. is not unique in seeing an overall decrease in the crime rate, as
it mirrors a national trend, which Gordon said could be explained
partly by an aging population. As society ages, there is a smaller
proportion of young adult males, the group most likely to commit crime.

Also, crime prevention programs at the community and industry level
have helped, he said, citing the advent of car immobilizers as an example.