Pubdate: Tue, 25 Oct 2005
Source: Business In Vancouver (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 BIV Publications Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.biv.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2458
Author: Glenn Drexhage

BUSINESS CRIME WORRIES PERSIST

Commercial Break-Ins Are Dropping, but Board of Trade Figures Show
Vancouver With One of the Worst Crime Rates in the Country

Dave Park, chief economist and assistant managing director at the
Vancouver Board of Trade, recently received an unsolicited call from a
food manufacturing business on Vancouver Island.

The firm was pondering a move to Vancouver - but then those making the
decision read about a violent crime committed against a family member.

"And they said we could move back to Vancouver, and we've been
thinking about it. But you know, after this, no way," Park recalled.

This cautionary tale aptly illustrates one of the many impacts that
crime continues to exact on Vancouver's business community. That said,
there are some encouraging signs.

Dave Jones, director of crime prevention services for the Downtown
Vancouver Business Improvement Association, said crime rates for
downtown businesses are "decreasing dramatically."

Jones said that in the downtown peninsula west of Cambie Street,
commercial break-ins for the first quarter of 2005 fell eight per cent
to 202, compared with the same period last year.

And the second quarter was defined by a whopping drop of 47 per cent
to 137.

Jones said a "huge factor" behind the decline was the police crime
suppression team working alongside Operation Co-operation - a group of
security specialists - to target chronic offenders regularly.

"A secondary factor, I'd say, is simply the increased density of the
downtown area," he added. "It's just harder to find a time when you
don't have somebody around to commit a crime openly. And people have
cell phones."

Len McGeouch, division loss prevention manager for the North Pacific
division of 7-Eleven Inc., said that year-to-date, there had been a
two per cent increase in the number of criminal incidents taking place
at 7-Eleven shops throughout the Lower Mainland compared with the same
period last year. That translates to about 30 more crimes.

"It's almost flat," McGeouch said. "But whenever you see an increase,
it concerns me."

Stores in outlying areas such as Richmond, Burnaby and Surrey have
experienced more crime increases than those in central Vancouver.

There are 70 7-Eleven outlets in the Lower Mainland, and theft is the
main type of crime suffered. Annually, 7-Eleven shops in the Lower
Mainland are hit with hundreds of crimes costing hundreds of thousands
of dollars.

Indeed, crime remains a worrying problem. An update from the board of
trade - unveiled at a Vancouver forum last week - found that, after
adjusting for population differences, the overall Criminal Code
offence rate in Vancouver almost tied the rate in Winnipeg, the worst
major metropolitan area nationally. The report notes that in 2004 the
rate of Vancouver City property crime offences reported to police was
8,481 per 100,000 people, nearly the same tally as the previous year.

The property crime rate in Burnaby grew by 8.5 per cent in 2004, yet
fell by nearly the same amount - 8.2 per cent - in Surrey.

In Vancouver, property crime made up two-thirds of reported criminal
code offences, costing an estimated $130 million.

Of that figure, residents paid the heaviest price, accounting for
about $108 million. The remainder - about $22 million - is the hit
taken by the business community.

"Bear in mind that all the employees and all the owners of the
businesses are also [residents]," Park said. "So there's a double
whammy there."

Of the $22 million, vehicle crimes - such as automobiles that are
stolen and vandalized - account for about $4 million. Theft makes up
the $18 million remainder.

Businesses both big and small are impacted.

"And in addition downtown, the parkades and so forth are used by small
business and big business for their customers. And this is a problem,"
Park said

The main causes of crime against businesses in the greater Vancouver
area, he said, are "drugs and the need to generate cash to support the
drug habit. That is by far the most intense driving force."

Yet he too acknowledged some progress: "The increased policing in the
downtown area I think has perhaps made it a little easier on
businesses downtown. But then what we've seen is, is an increase in
property crime out in the Dunbar area, for example."
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