File Photo (Image Credit: Curtis Goodrum / CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

CRIME STATS

Break-and-enters the main driver of Crime Severity Index in Kamloops: RCMP

Jul 23, 2025 | 4:25 PM

KAMLOOPS — Last year, Statistics Canada listed Kamloops as the Crime Capital of Canada, a title that made waves across the community and on social media. The dubious distinction came as Kamloops crossed over the 100,000 mark for population, placing the community in the census metropolitan area category. Kamloops RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley, at the time, noted the numbers didn’t paint a true representation of crime in the city. This year, Kamloops has seen a drop in crime, no longer topping the nationwide list.

Kamloops now ranks third in crime rate per 100,000 people, and second in the Crime Severity Index, both representing decreases from a year ago.

“We continue to focus on those offenders responsible for the main drivers, and just being 100,000 population, being new to the census metropolitan area, has had an impact and it creates an image that is not conducive to the great work that is being done by all our officers and staff throughout the community,” said Pelley.

Police in Kamloops responded to just over 10,500 crimes per 100,000 last year, a decrease of approximately 2,500 files. It comes as the detachment dealt with a highly visible drug conflict in 2024.

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“Twenty-four-point-six per cent reduction on non-violent, and 9 per cent reduction on violent crimes,” stated Pelley. “And we are going to continue to focus on those individuals responsible in this community for the violence.”

Break-and-enters were the top driver of the crime severity index for Kamloops. Even still, the detachment believes some crimes may be going unreported, which hinders investigations into repeat offenders.

“My message to them for some of those businesses that aren’t reporting crimes — we need those crimes reported. We need to continue to investigate those,” said Pelley. “Certainly, look at strategically who is responsible for them. Some offenders we have are responsible for a series of crimes, and some of those may go unsolved (without proper reporting).”

The Kamloops RCMP detachment has been increasing staffing levels in recent years, with city council approving five new officers per year. Those Mounties are being distributed into areas of need in the community.

“Our frontline officers and we have increased some of our specialized units — from our Crime Reduction Unit, our General Investigation Support team, our Targeted Enforcement Unit — and they have all served with benefit to a strategic approach throughout the community,” said Pelley.

While Pelley did call the decrease in crime in Kamloops a victory, he admitted there is still a lot of work to do as he outlined his priorities for the year ahead.

“We want to reduce our violent person crimes. That has always been our Number 1 priority. We want to reduce our property crime. We have taken an intelligence-based approach to focusing on offenders,” added Pelley. “We have worked closely with the Repeat Violent (Offender) Intervention initiative, the RVOI program.”

A breakdown of emergency calls to specific corridors in the city, such as Victoria West or Tranquille, will be presented to a city council committee on Thursday (July 24).