Overall crime rate down in Vancouver

(CBC) - The overall number of crimes in Vancouver is "falling dramatically," but violent crime is up, the police department's annual report says.

Chief Jamie Graham said the number of crime incidents was down 7.5 per cent in 2005. That decline continued this year.

Graham said property crime fell by 10.5 per cent last year, with residential burglaries down by more than 16 per cent and the number of stolen vehicles down by 14 per cent.

However, the report released Monday said violent crime was up two per cent in Vancouver in 2005, with assaults up six per cent.

The force added 50 new officers last year and 50 new civilian workers, but Graham said that may not be enough to deal with future policing needs.

"We're in the middle of a quite a detailed study right now to look at our reviews for 2007. We have some research going on and early indications are that we may need more people."

The department spent $20,000 to have the four-page report published and distributed as an insert in the Vancouver Sun.

Graham said the report reaches up to half a million people this way, compared to a few thousand by a more traditional format.

One of the leading critics of the department said Monday's report fails to provide a critical assessment of police behaviour.

"It seems reading this that everything is absolutely perfect. But certainly that's not the experience of the people who are calling us on an almost daily basis," said John Richardson of the Pivot Legal Society, an advocacy group in the Downtown Eastside.

Richardson said there's nothing in the annual report about people who have complaints about police officers and argues statistics on those complaints should be included.

© the CBC, 2006