Prince George named Canada's worst crime-ridden city: Survey

Prince George has been ranked as Canada’s No. 1 crime city in a survey released Thursday by Maclean’s magazine.

Police in Victoria and Kelowna disputed the figures, which place five B.C. cities on the magazine’s Top 10 wall of shame.

Prince George, with a population of 77,000, easily topped the worst- city rankings, at 90 per cent above the national crime average.

“Prince George is actually quite a safe community, despite what the rating says,” said RCMP Const. Lesley Smith. “I know we have had an increase in crime. It’s in direct relation to gang activity.”

Smith said police in Prince George are targeting the problem and will release figures next week on the amount of drugs and weapons taken off the street and the number of gang members charged this year.

According to Maclean’s, sleepy Victoria is No. 2 on the crime charts, with 81 per cent more crime than the national average.

But Victoria police department spokesman Sgt. Grant Hamilton challenged the figures, saying they didn’t take into account a number of factors.

“Victoria is a very safe city,” he said. “You can walk around downtown and go out at night time. We don’t have a large number of drive-by shootings or gang activity.”

via ca.news.yahoo.com