Sarnia saw a nearly 20 per cent increase in crime in 2023

(File photo)

If you think that Sarnia seems more dangerous, statistics show you could be correct.

Police reported crime statistics for 2023 have officially been released, and crime severity and frequency for the city is overall higher than it was the year prior.

This year’s data shows an overall increase to the crime severity index (CSI) of 10.69 per cent, an 24.48 per cent increase in violent CSI and a 4.42 per cent increase in non-violent CSI.

Overall, the crime “rate” (which is violations scaled to population) increased 19.61 per cent – covering a wide variety of categories including assault, fraud, assault, shoplifting and more. The most common charges were failure to comply with orders, and theft under $5,000. The category that saw the highest year over year increase was probation breaches, were saw a change of more than 100 per cent in 2023.

Sarnia Police Chief Derek Davis said that while the increases were cause for concern, some of the change can be attributed to improved reporting, “While the increases to the CSI are concerning, they are not unexpected given the increases to calls for service and incidents of serious crime. 2023 also saw improvements made to our reporting processes to better capture and reflect the reality of crime in our city. Online reporting and the introduction of the Community Crime Unit are examples of encouraging the timely reporting of previously untracked incidents.“