With an average Crime Severity Index score of 52.4, Coaldale ranks as one of the safest municipality between 8,000-11,000 residents in Alberta.
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In December of last year, the Town of Coaldale officially released its 2023 Comparative Analysis – an annual report that compares Coaldale’s operational and financial performance to the operational and financial performances of eight other similarly sized and/or neighbouring municipalities (Blackfalds, Drumheller, Edson, Innisfail, Lethbridge, Lethbridge County, Ponoka, and Taber).
In keeping with the Town’s 2022 Analysis, the Town’s 2023 Analysis compares Coaldale to its peer and neighbouring municipalities across seven benchmarks – one of which is crime severity.
“In recent years, crime has become an area of significant interest to our community, and so last year we decided to add crime severity as a benchmark to the analysis”, said Cameron Mills, Deputy CAO and Director of Growth and Investment for the Town of Coaldale. “Our thinking was that by adding this benchmark, we’d be able to provide both current and prospective residents with a better understanding of where Coaldale sits relative to its peer and neighbouring municipalities in terms of the frequency and severity of crime – which we know can have a major impact on where people decide to live or buy property.”
According to Statistics Canada, Crime Severity Index (CSI) scores are based off the number of crimes reported by police in each jurisdiction, as well as the relative seriousness of those crimes. If a jurisdiction has a high proportion of less serious crimes (which are weighted lower), it will have a lower CSI score. Conversely, if a jurisdiction has a high proportion of more serious crimes (which are weighted higher), it will have a higher CSI score. Canada’s CSI score is always 100, which means that municipalities with a CSI score of above 100 are less safe while municipalities with a CSI score of below 100 are safer.
As the data in the analysis reveals, when it comes to crime severity Coaldale stands out for being the safest community among both its peer and neighbouring municipalities.
Coming in at 52.4, Coaldale’s average CSI score is 71 points lower than the group average (123.4). This is primarily due to the fact that both violent crime and non-violent crime in Coaldale have remained, on average, relatively low. For the years between 2018-2022, Coaldale saw an average violent crime score of 41.8, which is 57.5 points lower than the group average (99.3). During that same period, Coaldale saw an average non-violent crime score of 56.7, which is 62.7 points lower than the group average (119.4).
“To control for fluctuations in CSI scores – which can change significantly from one year to the next – we decided we’d calculate a 5-year CSI score average for each municipality in the analysis”, explained Mills. “What we found was that over the last 5 years, both violent crime and non-violent crime in Coaldale have remained, on average, relatively low making it the safest community among both its neighbours and peers. In fact, with an average CSI score of 52.4, Coaldale ranks as the safest municipality its size in the province, the 3rd safest municipality of its size in western Canada, and the 6th safest municipality of its size in the country.”
To read the Town of Coaldale’s 2023 Comparative Analysis, please visit: https://www.coaldale.ca/ComparativeAnalysis.