The City's overall crime rate rose by nearly 6% last year, according to stats released Wednesday by Ottawa Police.
In their annual report, Police say there were 33,125 reported crimes last year, up from 31,019 the year before. That amounts to 3,420 crimes per 100,000 residents in 2016, up from 3,228 in 2015.
The vast majority (27,896) were considered non-violent crimes. That number is 8.1% higher than 2015.
The number of violent crimes per 100,000 people declined by 0.6%, but they were considered more severe, led by a record number of shootings and murders. There number of reported violent crimes remained relatively steady in 2016... going up slightly, a total of 12 more reported crimes over 2015.
25 people died as a result of crime in 2016; 24 of those cases were homicides. We also saw 66 shooting incidents.
The number of crimes in which charges were laid in 2016, called the "clearance rate", was steady, falling to 35.9%, down from 36.2% in 2015. When it came to violent crime specifically, the clearance rate was up 1.4%
Police say they received 985,877 total calls in 2016. 322,588 were entered into the dispatch system, with 235,564 of those requiring police to be on-scene. It took an average of 7 minutes for police to arrive to a call. There were 3,969 “Priority 1” calls, in which there was an immediate risk to life. Police arrived on scene of those calls within 15 minutes 93% of the time.
Women were the victims of crime slightly more often than men last year. Men were more likely to be the victims of crimes such as homicide, attempted murder, robbery, or assault, while women were more likely to be victims of sexual violence or abduction.
The report says the number of complaints against police officers rose 15.2% to 401 complaints in 2016, up from 348. 57 complaints resulted in discipline last year, a 97% increase over 2015.
The cost of policing in 2016 rose 3.6 per cent to $279.7 million.
The full report is here.
