Kamloops crime severity on slow decline: StatsCan

“It’s an indication of, obviously, the hard work and the proactive strategies our officers do every day,” Kamloops RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley said of the decrease. “Our officers and support staff are committed to ensuring the well-being and safety of our community.”

The data also showed Kamloops had a violent Crime Severity Index of 128.98, up about three per cent from the 2024 rate of 125.24. The non-violent Crime Severity Index rate last year was 126.18, down about seven per cent from the 2024 rate of 136.02.

“The more serious the offense [means] we’ll have more of a strategy with regards to how we resource them. If we have serious offences like homicides or shootings or forcible confinements, those investigations take a substantial amount of resources,” Pelley said.

“It’s very hard to determine under-reporting,” he added of the drop in the non-violent Crime Severity Index rate. “I don’t have a percentage but we are always concerned some things are under-reported when we’re seeing trends throughout the community.”

“We try to be proactive and you’ve seen us make appeals over the last year with reporting certain crimes or thefts or break-and-enters or offences throughout our corridors because there were some businesses that just did not report offences or crimes that happened to them that were described as lesser crimes.”

Kamloops RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley speaking to media on July 23, 2026. (Image Credit: Jeremy Russo/CFJC Today)

Statistics Canada says the data is meant to provide a high-level overview of police-reported crime in the country, noting it does not necessarily capture all long-term trends, regional variation or violation-specific patterns.

While the agency assigns greater weight to more serious offences, police say the numbers don’t always paint a true representation – a reference to 2023. That year, Kamloops earned the dubious moniker of the ‘Crime Capital of Canada’ when the city had the highest crime rate of any city in the country.

“We are susceptible to spikes in the stats,” Pelley said. “Stats Canada notes that the CMAs with smaller populations like Kamloops – with a population of under 100,000 in its core municipality – are significantly more susceptible to a sharp year-over-year variation within the Crime Severity Index.”

“We’re second for over the 100,000 (population) when being compared to your Calgarys, your Edmontons, your Torontos,” Pelley added of the latest stats. “We’re ranked 16th when compared to other cities comparable. We have cities just under the 100,000 population that have a higher Crime Severity Index than Kamloops, and yet they’re not considered in the over-100,000 population.”

The Kamloops Census Metropolitan Area also includes the communities of Chase, Sun Peaks and Logan Lake, as well as several area First Nations and TNRD electoral areas, but those communities are not all served by the Kamloops RCMP.

Pelley adds Kamloops RCMP will use the data to help formulate its priorities around measures like proactive patrols as well as both existing and new initiatives to target repeat offenders.

“We’ve had some great successes recently but there is a lot of work to be done when offenders are released and it becomes challenging,” Pelley said. “It’s one thing to talk about the statistics and where we focus but it’s also another thing to focus on the offenders and the individuals responsible for compromising the public safety throughout this community.”

“We will be very progressive and not tolerate any type of violence or repeat crimes within our community.”

by Victor Kaisar

Kamloops crime severity on slow decline: StatsCan

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