There was an increase in violent crime in the Quinte region last year.
Statistics Canada recently release its annual Crime Severity Index (CSI), measuring the volume and severity of police-reported crime in Canada.
While the overall CSI for the Belleville-Quinte West Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) was down about four per cent in 2024 compared to the year before, violent crime increased 7.7 per cent.
The Belleville CMA includes Belleville, Quinte West, Tyendinaga-Deseronto, and Stirling-Rawdon.
Violent crime offences include homicide, assault, sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, human trafficking, extortion and uttering threats.
The violent crime CSI for the local CMA was 85.22 last year, up from the 2023’s 79.13.
There were 1,606 violent crimes reported in 2024 compared to 1,417 in 2023.
There were three homicides in the region last year, down from two the year before.
Non-violent crime dropped 10.5 per cent with the index falling from 63.46 in 2023 to 56.77 in 2024.
The overall CSI in the Belleville-Quinte West CMA in 2024 was 64.50 down from 67.53 in 2023.
The national Crime Severity Index was 77.9, down from 2023’s 81.2.
The Ontario CSI fell one per cent to 60.7.
Kingston’s overall CSI dropped a whopping 18 per cent to 59.3 while the Peterborough CMA was virtually unchanged at 61.3 an increase of just one per cent.
