A Decline in Break and Enters Lowers Canada's Crime Rate

The number of property Break-and-Enters has seen a significant drop by 35% in Quebec and 19% in British Columbia, the fastest decline in the country.  With a constantly growing population, less crime is been seen in the province of British Columbia.

 This chart shows the reduction of break-ins in BC when compared to past five years.

Out of all the cities, Vancouver was seen to have the greatest decrease of Break-ins in the province of British Columbia and police say, It's also because they spend a great deal of time trying to identify the burglars/offenders and target them in an attempt to reduce the numbers of break-ins. 

Constable Brian Montague, the media relations officer at the Vancouver Police Department said, "He saw a 12% decrease in the number of residential Break-ins in the month of December(when Break and Enters are normally at its peak due to Christmas ), from 2012 to 2013."

Despite of the decrease in the number of Break-ins, there are perhaps some citizens resided in the outskirts of Vancouver, who are yet concerned about the safety of their neighbourhood.

Analyzing  the total break and enter crime numbers in Surrey, it was found that surrey itself showed a 14% increase in break-ins by 995 in 2013 to 1130 in 2014 and this rise in numbers is actually concerning for a lot of neighbourhoods located in the outskirts of Vancouver.

 Mahtab Janjua, a resident of Surrey, BC shares her personal story of a break-in at her house, where she felt unprotected despite of having an alarm system. She states, "Last year in December, there had been a break-in in my house while I was out of town. The burglars broke in and took their time to disconnect our alarm system. I found odd that the police actually arrived about 45 minutes from the time they were contacted by the alarm company, like they're not concerned about the citizens at all." 

Constable Brian Montague said in this regard that the delayed arrival of police in this case is unknown but the Vancouver Police Department is doing its best to reduce crime numbers by looking into enforcement and education.

He says, "Education is one big component of trying to reduce property crime. 25 - 30% of residential break-ins in Vancouver show no signs of forced entry so we try to educate property owners about what they can do to protect themselves including simply locking windows and doors."

He further states, "Our officers are trained in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CEPTED) and we will spend time, one-on-one, with both home owners and businesses to evaluate and explain how they can target-harden their property."

Although the outskirts of Vancouver show a spike in the numbers of break-ins, the chart below indicate a decrease in the reported number of incidents of Break-ins overall in BC.

Rishi Gill, Criminal Defense Lawyer. Photo by: Huda Manzoor

According to Rishi Gill, a criminal lawyer based in Vancouver, most  break and enters are committed by drug offenders. 

While exploring the reasons behind most break-ins,

 He states, "Usually Break and Enters are tied to economic conditions. why do people steal? Mostly people steal because they're drug addicts/ offenders."

According to Gill, mostly drug addicts attempt to break in because it's getting harder and harder for everyone to survive in expensive places like Vancouver and the main reason why there's more crime in the impoverished areas is the circumstance they live in. 

Nevertheless, Gill asserts that the crime rate of people been charged in the city is way down. 

He argues, "Vancouver is becoming expensive so there's less crime because there's not many properties in the area. In the downtown eastside, where there's more crime. the police is not charging but rather using different strategies and alternatives like diversion, stitch-cone; where you have to give all the evidence to the accused."

In addition to these strategies, the VPD also has been putting effort into a very active Block Watch program to prevent Break and enters. This is a program about neighbours acting as visual reporters where they report on suspicious activities taking place in their neighbourhood to the police.

Constable Brian Montague advice's the residents in the meantime to lock their doors and vehicles and report on all the suspicious incidents around their neighbourhood.