Vancouver Police today released year-end crime statistics for 2018 that show a decrease in violent crime in Vancouver, but an increase in property crime, driven mostly by theft from motor vehicles.
“Theft from motor vehicles is a big issue in Vancouver, especially downtown,” says Sergeant Jason Robillard, Media Relations Officer, VPD. “In 2018, there was an increase of 16.2 per cent in these incidents over the previous year. This is completely preventable crime. We are asking residents of Vancouver and visitors to the city to not leave anything visible in their vehicles – if you do, it will get stolen.”
Theft of items from motor vehicles made up 35 per cent of all property crime incidents in 2018. Overall, the property crime rate increased by 1.5 per cent but there was a decrease of nearly 11 per cent in residential break-and-enters and a decrease of nine per cent in break-and-enter incidents involving businesses.
The violent crime rate decreased by 0.2 per cent, due to a decrease in homicides (15 in 2018 and 19 in 2017), bank robberies (29 in 2018 and 52 in 2017) and shots-fired incidents (19 in 2018 and 31 in 2017).
For a complete list of all VPD year-end metrics, click here.
