Dodge City of the Maritimes?
Halifax has broken a dubious record.
It now has more murders than any other time in its long history.
The previous high was in 2010 with twelve homicides.
But should we stay in after dark cowering behind double bolted doors?
Police and other experts say no even after a shocking murder on the 19th of November.
The only murder considered random is that of 70-year-old Glenn Francis Oakley in Spryfield.
Oakley was shot while walking near his home in Drysdale Road in Spryfield.
Two teens with a .22-calibre rifle allegedly shot the elderly man who was out for a walk.
Knowing that there is very little chance that random murders happen in Halifax doesn’t make it any easier for the families of the victims.
But experts say the numbers show the city is not Dodge in the wild west.
“While shocking, random homicides are rare in HRM,” said Chris McNeil, deputy chief of Halifax Regional Police told reporters.
“Obviously people should be concerned about a random act of violence, especially as horrific as the week-end homicide, but does it mean we’re more dangerous than we were yesterday? The answer to that is probably no,” said McNeil.
“The vast majority of homicides occur amongst people they know and a large percentage of those occur within the criminal subculture,” McNeil said.
“But we do recognize these crimes happen from time to time and they come up and they’re just shocking to the community.”
And especially in these cases, it’s important to solve them quickly to ease the concerns of the community, he added.
The obvious question is why do so many people in Halifax believe we live in a violent city.
Dr. Diane Crocker says “part of the problem lies with the media and the public’s fascination with crime.”
“You can’t turn on a radio or TV or pick up a paper without a crime story in the headlines it seems,” said the St. Mary’s University Criminology Professor.
Crocker says if you are a victim statistics don’t help a whole lot but the fact of the matter is we live in a relatively safe city.
Statistics Canada numbers back up the claim.
Crime rates1 in selected census metropolitan areas, Canada, 1991 to 2006
1. Rates based on count of total Criminal Code incidents excluding traffic offences.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, 1991 to 2006.
The news from the federal agency is even better five years after the above graph was produced.
“The national crime rate has been falling steadily for the past 20 years and is now at its lowest level since 1973,” Statistics Canada reported.
The agency said that Canadian police services reported nearly 2.1 million Criminal Code incidents in 2010, about 77,000 fewer than in 2009. The police-reported crime rate measures the overall volume of crime.
Why then the focus on crime by both the media and the public?
Dr. Crocker says it is important to keep an eye on crime to see what trends may develop and there is a general interest by the public so the media provides what people want.
But she says this is a dangerous game.
The St. Mary’s criminologist argues that public opinion is becoming a bigger barrier to achieving justice than the actual extent of crime. Using the most current data available, her research reveals how Canada can better assess the effectiveness of crime control policies, as well as its responses to crime, while promoting democratic values such as equity and accountability.
Statistics Canada had some interesting facts about Halifax. Its numbers show the city’s property and violent crime hot spots were located largely in the city’s downtown area and east of Halifax Harbour.
The numbers also prove crime is more likely to affect neighbourhoods with more single-mother families. These families tend to be living in low-income situations.
Violent crime also occurs in neighbourhoods with larger proportions of commercial zoning and populations with lower levels of education.
Many police officers seem to agree about where the hot spots are in the city. They also say there is a pattern to the majority of crime in the city,
“The drugs seem to be the root of the problems that we have in the city. People with addictions will do anything for the drug,” said Constable Kurt Walsh, Halifax Regional Police.
He says, “It kind of works in one big circle. There is very little random crime in Halifax. Most is related to that circle I was speaking about…Murders are drug related as is robbery and the crime happens within that circle. There is some but nowhere near what the public thinks there is in Halifax.”