Police personnel and selected crime statistics

Total for Canada includes police officers in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) operation and corporate headquarters, training academy depot division and forensic labs.

Represents the actual number of police officers and civilian and other personnel as of September 30 for 1986 to 1995; as of June 15 for 1996 to 2005; and as of May 15 since 2006.

Represents actual police officer strength as of September 30 for 1986 to 1995; as of June 15 for 1996 to 2005; and as of May 15 since 2006.

Given that small counts of personnel employed by police service identified as “gender diverse”, the Police Administration Survey (PAS) data has been recoded to assign these counts to either “male” or “female” in order to ensure the protection of confidentiality and privacy.

Represents actual civilian and other personnel as of September 30 for 1986 to 1995; as of June 15 for 1996 to 2005; and as of May 15 since 2006.

This category includes civilians personnel, special constables and recruits (cadets and trainees).

Rates are calculated per 100,000 population. Population estimates provided by Statistics Canada, Demography Division.

Represents the number of fully-sworn police officer positions that the police service was allowed to fill during the calendar or fiscal year, whether or not that number of officers was hired.

Data on Criminal Code incidents are provided through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey. Data for UCR (including revisions to the previous year) are released in July, after Police Administration Survey data. For this reason, the previous-year UCR data presented in this table are subject to revision. Excludes Criminal Code traffic incidents.

The Crime Severity Index (CSI) takes into account both the volume and the seriousness of crime. In the calculation of the CSI, each offence is assigned a weight, derived from average sentences handed down by criminal courts. The more serious the average sentence, the higher the weight for that offence. As a result, more serious offences have a greater impact on changes in the index. All Criminal Code offences, including traffic offences and other federal statute offences, are included in the CSI.

This table reflects the weighted clearance rates and crime severity index data available at the time of publishing. The weighted clearance rate and crime severity index (CSI) are updated every year in July with the release of data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey. For the most up to date weighted clearance rate and CSI please see CANSIM tables 252-0052 and 252-0083 to 252-0089.

Criminal incidents can either be cleared by charge or cleared otherwise (for example, through extrajudicial means in instances where a charge could otherwise be laid). The weighted clearance rate is based on the same principle used to create the police-reported Crime Severity Index, whereby more serious offences are assigned a higher weight than less serious offences. Applying this concept to clearance rates means that, for example, the clearance of a homicide, robbery or break and enter receives a higher weight than the clearance of less serious offences such as minor theft, mischief and disturbing the peace.