Barrie is the second safest city in Canada and Barrie Police credit the community for the success.
The Barrie Census Metropolitan Area (BCMA) was nudged out for top spot by Quebec City with Toronto number three, according to new figures from Statistics Canada.
"Congrats to @BarriePolice and #Barrie residents. We came within a decimal place of Quebec City for lowest crime index in Canada in 2016," Mayor Jeff Lehman tweeted.
In the annual Crime Severity Index report, the Barrie Census Metropolitan Area (BCMA), which consists of Barrie, Innisfil and Springwater Township, placed second for the lowest amount of serious crime last year.
The Crime Severity Index (CSI) is a measure of police-reported crime that reflects the relative seriousness of individual offences and tracks changes in crime severity.
The Barrie and region 2016 overall CSI is reported at 45.4 which is less than the provincial and national average. The Barrie CMA 2016 Violent CSI is reported at 46.3 with an overall decrease of 40 percent since 2006.
"Number two is very good and we are very happy for that," said Barrie Police Const. Nicole Rodgers.
Barrie Police credit good working relationships with the community among the many reasons for Barrie's top ranking.
"I think the biggest thing is the collaborative efforts from our citizens and our community groups working with the police. I think we have such a great relationship with the citizens of Barrie and the surrounding areas. We work well with our partners, being OPP and South Simcoe Police. We work well with Crime Stoppers," said Rodgers
"We have great social media platforms that have a ton of followers in the area and we have people that really interact with us whether it's calling us, identifying people we post. Whether it's trusting us, believing in us. That's what puts us in the top three and it's kept us there for so many years, since 2013. The decline of 40 percent since 2006 is great."
Rodgers says the stats are used as a yardstick to gauge crime trends and the effectiveness of police crime-fighting.
One area of concern in this report was an increase in the number of frauds.
"We had a rise in frauds, identity frauds. We've really been doing a lot of education, making sure our social media is driven towards the Canada Revenue Agency scams and email scams. Hopefully we'll see a decrease in Barrie in future years."
Rodgers also added that the increase in frauds locally is part of a national trend and not exclusive to Barrie.
Stats Can reported the overall volume and severity of non-violent crime, as measured by the non-violent CSI, rose to 69.3 in 2016, marking a 2% increase from the previous year. The increase was largely driven by increases in police-reported incidents of fraud.
Police-reported rates of cannabis-related drug offences declined for the fifth consecutive year in 2016. The rate of possession of cannabis declined 12 percent from 2015 with all provinces and territories reporting declines, except Prince Edward Island, up 15 percent, New Brunswick, up 7 percent and Quebec which reported no change.
Although the rate of police-reported violent crime declined overall in Canada, violent violations which experienced an increase in rate included a 30 percent increase in sexual violations against children.
