Red Deer’s overall crime rate decreased by 9.8% last year, according to annual crime statistics released by the City of Red Deer.

“These statistics represent reported crimes and the overall crime rate in Red Deer for the last year,” said Greg Scott, community services director. “We definitely saw a decrease in most categories over 2012, and we expect that positive downward trend will continue into 2014.”

The number of total property crimes decreased 7.2% over 2012 with the number of total persons crime also decreasing 18.7%. Persons crime includes offences such as homicide, robbery and assault, and property crime includes break and enter, motor vehicle theft and theft over and under $5,000.

“It is important to constantly review crime-related statistics to evaluate how they measure up against the overall picture of safety in our community,” said Mayor Tara Veer. “It is thanks to the hard work of all our community partners from police to businesses, community agencies and citizens that we’ve been able to put effective community safety strategies in place for the betterment of our citizens. My hope is that council will continue to prioritize community safety and that we will achieve further reductions in crime-related incidents in the coming year.”

The annual statistics released are consistent with the City’s quarterly crime statistics, which were released in April, July and October.

City officials said council continues to focus on safety, and crime is just one component of this work, which addresses the role of policing, perceptions of safety, crime prevention and community involvement as it relates to safety.

“This decrease is a reflection of Council’s investment to policing and crime prevention,” said City Manager Craig Curtis. “I expect community safety will continue to be a priority for the City and a key strategy as council goes forward in setting their strategic direction in the coming months.”

– Fawcett