Vancouver Police Union and mayor’s party cite outdated crime statistic ahead of election

The Vancouver Police Union updated wording on its Vote Public Safety campaign website after CTV News questioned its claim that violent crime was “now” at its lowest point since tracking began in 2022. The union said the 23-year low applied to the first quarter of 2025, not to 2025 year-end figures or 2026 data. A spokesperson said the wording was adjusted to clarify the reporting period and avoid confusion.

The claim came from a Public Safety Indicators report presented to the Vancouver Police Board last year. It said the first three months of 2025 recorded Vancouver’s lowest number of violent crimes since the implementation of PRIME in 2002. PRIME is a provincewide centralized crime-records database. No comparable record low was cited in other quarterly reports last year or in the year-end report. Quarterly reports presented to the board last week show violent crime was up six per cent in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year. The Q1 and Q2 reports were the first comprehensive crime data provided to the board and public this year, one month before the municipal election.

The union says it is not endorsing a candidate or party in October’s municipal election, but Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC Party website carries the same claim. A party spokesperson said Vancouver achieved its lowest violent crime rate in 23 years in 2025 and attributed it to ABC investments in police, fire and mental-health services, while saying street disorder remains connected to provincial drug and housing policies.

Statistics Canada’s latest Crime Severity Index reported that police-reported crime fell five per cent nationally in 2025 compared with 2024. The index declined in every province and territory except New Brunswick and Nunavut. Among major cities, Vancouver recorded a five per cent drop, Toronto 12.6 per cent and Montreal 3.5 per cent. Unlike the conventional crime rate, which measures crime volume relative to population, the index also gives greater weight to more serious offences.