Violent crime, property crime up
Posted Feb 9, 2010 06:53:08 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Halifax area has seen an increase in the number of violent crimes, according to numbers released by Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP.
Violent crimes in HRM were up one per cent in 2009. Police Chief Frank Beazley tells News95.7, that includes 11 homicides — 4 more than the previous year.
“Four of them are actually drug-related type homicides,” Beazley explained. “The others were…some of the drive-by shootings in the Preston area, in Cole Harbour there was an accident which of course is considered a homicide investigation, even though the charge is manslaughter.”
Beazley says the numbers also include a consensual fight that ended with a death.
“It was a little different year, this year,” Beazley commented.
There were also four more attempted murders than the year before.
Property crimes are up six per cent, due in large part to an increase in car break-ins.
Chief Beazley says residents shouldn’t be alarmed by the increased crime. he says crime rates are often cyclical and calls the increases blips, after four straight years of declining crime rates.
