There was an 11 per cent increase in assault reports in 2022 compared to 2021, according to Sunshine Coast RCMP 2022 annual crime statistics.
That data, which covers the entire lower Coast area, is included in the violent crime section of the statistics report posted as part of the agenda for the April 18 Gibsons Committee of the whole agenda. Also included are crime statistics for the period of Jan. 1 to March 20, 2023, with comparisons to the first quarter of the previous year and data subsets for the Gibsons area.
Numbers show 219 assault files last year compared to 197 the year before. The 2022 count included 54 files involving a weapon or intending to cause bodily harm and 151 common assaults. Those were up respectively from 43 and 145 a year earlier. In 2023 reporting, the total number of assault files reported was 39, down from 42 during the first quarter of 2022.
While sexual offence reports dropped to 46 in 2022 from 62 the previous year, sexual assault files were up last year, with 25 reports compared to 23 the previous year. Files on sexual offences to March 20, 2023 totalled 13, including six sexual assault files. Those numbers are up from the first quarter of 2022, which showed seven and four respectively.
Harassment files saw an increase in 2022 to 92 from 87 in the previous year. Reports in 2023 showed a count of 15. That is down from 2022’s first quarter count of 23.
Extortion reports climbed to six in 2022 from the 2021 level of four. The reports to March 20 of this year show five, up from two during that time frame in 2022.
Reports of robberies were down in 2022 to four from six in the previous year. The first quarter of 2023 saw two, double the level in the first three months of 2022.
Two kidnapping files were reported in each 2021 and 2022. None were recorded in the 2023 reporting.
There were no homicide files from Sunshine Coast RCMP in the past two reporting years noted in the statistics, or in the first quarter of this year. (Editor's note: Readers have pointed out that there was a suspicious death by Ruby Lake in 2022. Sunshine Coast RCMP's detachment commander clarified that the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team takes primary conduct of all homicide files in the Coast area. So while geographically it is on the Coast, the file – and therefore stat – is the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team's and doesn't appear in this data set.)
Counts for reports of uttering of threats and files reported as “Domestic Violence Flag” in 2022 remained consistent with 2021 levels. Threat reports were at 93 in 2022 up one from the previous year. At 116, the domestic violence category in 2022 saw one additional report over 2021 levels. Numbers for both crimes are down in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the previous year.
