City’s violent crime severity index rises

The City of Brandon’s violent crime severity index jumped 18 per cent in 2024 — a fluctuation Brandon’s police chief said he takes to heart.

Statistics Canada released its annual index, which is the research agency’s measure for the volume and severity of police-reported crime, in July.

Brandon’s violent crime severity index for 2024 rose to 125.76 from 106.33, a large difference from Manitoba’s roughly three per cent drop to 213.83 from 218.73. This category covers violent offences, including assault, uttering threats, forcible confinement and homicide.

“We certainly don’t want to see our violent crime issues continue to grow at that kind of rate,” Brandon Police Service Chief Tyler Bates said in an interview Wednesday. “Hopefully this is an anomaly, and we see a reduction in the next year.”

The city’s overall crime severity index remained relatively steady with an increase of less than one per cent to 111.32 from 110.43. The province’s index dropped by about four per cent to 141.24 from 146.74.

Bates said there’s no way to determine exactly why the violent crime number shot up 18 per cent, but speculated that a spike in uttering threats could be a contributing factor.

Bates provided the Sun with some of Brandon Police Service’s statistics on police calls for service in 2024. There was a 19 per cent increase in uttering threats-related calls, bringing it up to 130 calls from 109. This number has continued to increase with 155 total calls related to this offence from July 2024 to July 2025.

There was a 17 per cent increase in robberies compared to the year prior, bringing it up to 48 robbery-related calls for service from 41.

Weapons-related calls for service went down by almost seven per cent to 138 from 148. There was a less than one per cent decrease in assault-related calls for service, which dropped the number down to 304 from 309, as well as an almost 14 per cent decrease in interpersonal violence assault-related calls, which dropped to 136 from 160.

There were two homicides in 2024 compared to six in 2023.

Bates emphasized that these numbers specifically represent calls for service and not actual incidents.

He said a positive he pulled from the Statistics Canada report was the decrease in Brandon’s non-violent crime severity index, which covers crimes like property and drug offences.

The city’s non-violent index dropped by roughly six per cent, bringing it to 106.49 from 113. This follows suit with the Manitoba-wide non-violent index, which decreased about five per cent to 114.31 from 119.20.

Bates repeated that he doesn’t have a solid answer as to the reasoning behind the decrease but said he hoped the increase in police and cadet visibility has played a role in preventing people from committing these crimes.

“We don’t want to be just reactively responding to calls and dealing with increased crime … We’d like to have an impact proactively and reduce crime where that opportunity is available,” Bates said.

Bates added that the summer of 2024 was a busy one for police. He said they experienced a higher workload due to the increased number of people staying in the city for a variety of circumstances, including summer events, seasonal employment and wildfire evacuees.

Kevin Wong, an associate professor in Brandon University’s Department of Sociology, said when you use the more traditional approach of measuring crime, which is the crime rate per 100,000, the violent crime numbers don’t look so grim.

When you look at actual violent incidences, Statistics Canada shows a roughly two per cent increase to 1,732.04 per 100,000 from 1,692.7, he said.

“It shows a somewhat different magnitude from that of the violent CSI,” Wong wrote in an email. “However, one needs to look back further to see what the trend has really been like.”

He said the violent crime rate has increased from to 1,732.04 per 100,000 in 2024 from 1,411.48 in 2014, which is an increase of around 23 per cent. In the same time frame, Winnipeg’s violent crime rate increased to 1,795.67 per 100,000 from 1,156.4, which is an increase of around 55 per cent.

Wong also compared the numbers to the violent crime rate in Canada, which rose to 1,433.46 per 100,000 from 1,044.23, or a roughly 37 per cent increase.

“One can see that Brandon’s trend of increase in that … period simply followed the general trend in both Canada and Winnipeg, quite fortunately to a lesser degree,” he said.

Mayor Jeff Fawcett said that while the 18 per cent increase in the violent crime severity index looks high, there are also more police and cadets, which in turn means the city is able to keep a better handle on crime.

“I actually expected higher numbers, but it wasn’t actually a bad thing,” Fawcett said. “It means we are dealing with things.”

Fawcett said, looking at the less than one per cent overall increase in Brandon’s crime severity index, the city isn’t in a bad spot.

“Overall, I do think that we’re holding our own out there,” Fawcett said.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com