{ "id": "police-calls-for-service", "category": "Safety and community", "title": "Police calls for service, Victoria and Esquimalt", "geography": "Victoria and Esquimalt police area (the Victoria Police Department serves both)", "scope": "region", "levels": [ "Police board and municipal councils (budget)" ], "plain_question": "How many times a year do people ask the police for help or report something to them?", "value": 54994, "display_value": "54,994", "unit": "calls in 12 months", "period": "12 months to September 2026", "period_start": "2025-10-01", "period_end": "2026-09-30", "comparison": { "previous_period": "12 months to September 2025", "previous_value": 51408, "change_percent": 7.0 }, "trend": "context", "trend_basis": "54,994 calls in the 4 quarters to Q3 2026 against 51,408 in the 4 quarters to Q3 2025 (sums of the department’s quarterly counts).", "direction_good": "down", "right_direction": "Neither direction is clearly better. More calls can mean more need for police, or more people choosing to report.", "since_text": "Calendar years: 52,047 calls in 2025, 48,643 in 2024.", "alt_view": { "key": "city", "switch": "City of Victoria only", "default_switch": "Victoria and Esquimalt", "label": "Dispatched police calls in the City of Victoria", "value": 39478, "display_value": "39,478", "unit": "dispatched calls in 12 months", "period": "12 months to September 2026", "comparison": { "previous_period": "12 months to September 2025", "previous_value": 36536, "change_percent": 8.1 }, "geography": "City of Victoria", "trend_basis": "39,478 dispatched calls in the City of Victoria in the 4 quarters to Q3 2026 against 36,536 a year earlier.", "note": "The City-only count includes dispatched calls only, as the department publishes it. It is not a share of the all-calls figure.", "five_compare": { "period": "12 months to September 2021", "value": 34615, "basis": "sum of 4 quarterly counts, same dashboard" }, "direction": { "type": "context", "rule": "Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series.", "key": "rising", "label": "Rising", "arrow": "▲", "rel": 8.1, "delta": null, "vs": "12 months to September 2025", "cur": "12 months to September 2026", "why": " The change is 8.1% of the earlier value, at or above the 5% threshold.", "change": "8.1%", "one_year": "+8.1%", "five": { "period": "12 months to September 2021", "comparable": true, "rel": 14.048822764697386, "text": "+14.0%", "years": 5 } }, "trend": "context", "changes": { "year": { "period": "12 months to September 2025", "value": 36536, "text": "vs Sep 2025: +8.1%" } } }, "caveats": [ "The department’s definition: “Call for Service (CFS) are requests for services from, or reports to the police department that generate any action on the part of the police department or partner agency performing work on behalf of the police department (such as E-Comm 9-1-1).”", "Note from the department: “Note that while Calls for Service by Category include all calls, the VicPD Jurisdiction Calls for Service only includes dispatched calls.” The City of Victoria view uses those dispatched calls.", "The headline adds the latest 4 quarters, so it covers 12 months (brief rule C3). 2016 to 2018 are published only as yearly totals.", "Calls for service count requests for help and reports. They are not a count of crimes." ], "charts": [ { "title": "Police calls for service a year", "fmt": "int", "unit": "calls", "lines": [ { "name": "All calls, Victoria and Esquimalt", "area": "vicpd", "series": [ { "period": "2016", "value": 58061 }, { "period": "2017", "value": 56321 }, { "period": "2018", "value": 59059 }, { "period": "2019", "value": 55207 }, { "period": "2020", "value": 51404 }, { "period": "2021", "value": 51462 }, { "period": "2022", "value": 49320 }, { "period": "2023", "value": 48619 }, { "period": "2024", "value": 48643 }, { "period": "2025", "value": 52047 } ] }, { "name": "Dispatched calls, Victoria and Esquimalt", "area": "vicpd", "series": [ { "period": "2016", "value": 40089 }, { "period": "2017", "value": 39143 }, { "period": "2018", "value": 40617 }, { "period": "2019", "value": 40491 }, { "period": "2020", "value": 38632 }, { "period": "2021", "value": 37660 }, { "period": "2022", "value": 38909 }, { "period": "2023", "value": 38289 }, { "period": "2024", "value": 38442 }, { "period": "2025", "value": 39686 } ] }, { "name": "Dispatched calls, City of Victoria", "area": "city", "series": [ { "period": "2016", "value": 35890 }, { "period": "2017", "value": 35380 }, { "period": "2018", "value": 36874 }, { "period": "2019", "value": 36533 }, { "period": "2020", "value": 34913 }, { "period": "2021", "value": 34387 }, { "period": "2022", "value": 35766 }, { "period": "2023", "value": 35245 }, { "period": "2024", "value": 35403 }, { "period": "2025", "value": 36629 } ] } ] }, { "title": "Police calls for service by quarter", "fmt": "int", "unit": "calls", "lines": [ { "name": "All calls, Victoria and Esquimalt", "area": "vicpd", "series": [ { "period": "Q1 2019", "value": 13549 }, { "period": "Q2 2019", "value": 15026 }, { "period": "Q3 2019", "value": 14562 }, { "period": "Q4 2019", "value": 12070 }, { "period": "Q1 2020", "value": 13769 }, { "period": "Q2 2020", "value": 12342 }, { "period": "Q3 2020", "value": 13251 }, { "period": "Q4 2020", "value": 12042 }, { "period": "Q1 2021", "value": 12285 }, { "period": "Q2 2021", "value": 13579 }, { "period": "Q3 2021", "value": 13911 }, { "period": "Q4 2021", "value": 11687 }, { "period": "Q1 2022", "value": 11974 }, { "period": "Q2 2022", "value": 12579 }, { "period": "Q3 2022", "value": 13015 }, { "period": "Q4 2022", "value": 11752 }, { "period": "Q1 2023", "value": 11731 }, { "period": "Q2 2023", "value": 11939 }, { "period": "Q3 2023", "value": 12963 }, { "period": "Q4 2023", "value": 11986 }, { "period": "Q1 2024", "value": 11127 }, { "period": "Q2 2024", "value": 12135 }, { "period": "Q3 2024", "value": 12764 }, { "period": "Q4 2024", "value": 12617 }, { "period": "Q1 2025", "value": 11467 }, { "period": "Q2 2025", "value": 13284 }, { "period": "Q3 2025", "value": 14040 }, { "period": "Q4 2025", "value": 13256 }, { "period": "Q1 2026", "value": 13073 }, { "period": "Q2 2026", "value": 13847 }, { "period": "Q3 2026", "value": 14818 } ] }, { "name": "Dispatched calls, City of Victoria", "area": "city", "series": [ { "period": "Q1 2019", "value": 8777 }, { "period": "Q2 2019", "value": 9577 }, { "period": "Q3 2019", "value": 9887 }, { "period": "Q4 2019", "value": 8292 }, { "period": "Q1 2020", "value": 9356 }, { "period": "Q2 2020", "value": 8563 }, { "period": "Q3 2020", "value": 8873 }, { "period": "Q4 2020", "value": 8121 }, { "period": "Q1 2021", "value": 8305 }, { "period": "Q2 2021", "value": 9001 }, { "period": "Q3 2021", "value": 9188 }, { "period": "Q4 2021", "value": 7893 }, { "period": "Q1 2022", "value": 8583 }, { "period": "Q2 2022", "value": 9099 }, { "period": "Q3 2022", "value": 9556 }, { "period": "Q4 2022", "value": 8528 }, { "period": "Q1 2023", "value": 8650 }, { "period": "Q2 2023", "value": 8505 }, { "period": "Q3 2023", "value": 9481 }, { "period": "Q4 2023", "value": 8609 }, { "period": "Q1 2024", "value": 8301 }, { "period": "Q2 2024", "value": 8775 }, { "period": "Q3 2024", "value": 9306 }, { "period": "Q4 2024", "value": 9021 }, { "period": "Q1 2025", "value": 8218 }, { "period": "Q2 2025", "value": 9341 }, { "period": "Q3 2025", "value": 9956 }, { "period": "Q4 2025", "value": 9114 }, { "period": "Q1 2026", "value": 9726 }, { "period": "Q2 2026", "value": 10098 }, { "period": "Q3 2026", "value": 10540 } ] } ] } ], "source": { "name": "Victoria Police Department, Community Data Dashboard (open data)", "url": "https://open-data.vicpd.ca/superset/dashboard/32/", "dataset_url": "https://open-data.vicpd.ca/superset/dashboard/32/", "download_url": "https://open-data.vicpd.ca/api/v1/chart/data", "locator": "Community Data Dashboard: stat “Call for Service”, location “VicPD”, by quarter; and stat “Call for Service - Dispatched”, location “Victoria”", "reads": "Call for Service, VicPD, Q4 2025 13,256, Q1 2026 13,073, Q2 2026 13,847, Q3 2026 14,818", "query": "SELECT year AS year,\n quarter AS quarter,\n location AS location,\n stat AS stat,\n value AS value\nFROM public.\"open-data\"\nWHERE stat IN ('Call for Service')\n AND location = 'VicPD'\nGROUP BY year,\n quarter,\n location,\n stat,\n value\nLIMIT 5000;" }, "licence": { "name": "Public data, not under an open licence. Used with attribution.", "url": "https://www.vicpd.ca/Open%20VicPD/open-vicpd", "open": false, "note": "VicPD publishes the dashboard for the public. No open licence is stated. Its terms prohibit commercial use; this site is non-commercial." }, "verified_text": [ "Call for Service | VicPD | Q4 2024 | 12617", "Call for Service | VicPD | Q1 2025 | 11467", "Call for Service | VicPD | Q2 2025 | 13284", "Call for Service | VicPD | Q3 2025 | 14040", "Call for Service | VicPD | Q4 2025 | 13256", "Call for Service | VicPD | Q1 2026 | 13073", "Call for Service | VicPD | Q2 2026 | 13847", "Call for Service | VicPD | Q3 2026 | 14818", "Call for Service - Dispatched | Victoria | Q4 2024 | 9021", "Call for Service - Dispatched | Victoria | Q1 2025 | 8218", "Call for Service - Dispatched | Victoria | Q2 2025 | 9341", "Call for Service - Dispatched | Victoria | Q3 2025 | 9956", "Call for Service - Dispatched | Victoria | Q4 2025 | 9114", "Call for Service - Dispatched | Victoria | Q1 2026 | 9726", "Call for Service - Dispatched | Victoria | Q2 2026 | 10098", "Call for Service - Dispatched | Victoria | Q3 2026 | 10540" ], "attribution": "Source: Victoria Police Department, Community Data Dashboard. Public data, used with attribution; not endorsed by the department.", "refresh_frequency": "Quarterly (dashboard)", "data_published": null, "data_published_basis": "not stated by the department (the dashboard shows no release date for each quarter)", "series": [ { "period": "2016", "value": 58061 }, { "period": "2017", "value": 56321 }, { "period": "2018", "value": 59059 }, { "period": "2019", "value": 55207 }, { "period": "2020", "value": 51404 }, { "period": "2021", "value": 51462 }, { "period": "2022", "value": 49320 }, { "period": "2023", "value": 48619 }, { "period": "2024", "value": 48643 }, { "period": "2025", "value": 52047 } ], "derived_figures": [ { "what": "12-month total", "formula": "sum of the latest 4 quarterly counts", "inputs": { "Q4 2025": 13256, "Q1 2026": 13073, "Q2 2026": 13847, "Q3 2026": 14818 }, "result": 54994 }, { "what": "12-month total a year earlier", "formula": "sum of the 4 quarterly counts a year earlier", "inputs": { "Q4 2024": 12617, "Q1 2025": 11467, "Q2 2025": 13284, "Q3 2025": 14040 }, "result": 51408 }, { "what": "City of Victoria dispatched, 12 months", "formula": "sum of the latest 4 quarterly counts", "inputs": { "Q4 2025": 9114, "Q1 2026": 9726, "Q2 2026": 10098, "Q3 2026": 10540 }, "result": 39478 }, { "what": "12-month total five years earlier (brief v3.2 A4)", "formula": "sum of the 4 quarterly counts ending five years before the latest quarter", "inputs": { "Q4 2020": 12042, "Q1 2021": 12285, "Q2 2021": 13579, "Q3 2021": 13911 }, "result": 51817 } ], "five_compare": { "period": "12 months to September 2021", "value": 51817, "basis": "sum of 4 quarterly counts, same dashboard" }, "retrieved_at": "2026-11-12T06:10:12Z", "licence_type": "public", "source_tier": 1, "measure_kind": "activity", "better_measure": null, "status_rule": { "rule": "One rule for every measure: a change smaller than 5% of the earlier value, or smaller than the agency's own margin of error, is “About the same”; no change is calculated across a marked break in a series; homelessness estimates, prices, staffing and comparison pages are shown for context without a label.", "reason": "Calls for service rise with need for police and with people's willingness to report, so the direction of change is not read as better or worse.", "threshold_percent": 5.0 }, "changes": { "year": { "period": "12 months to September 2025", "value": 51408, "text": "vs Sep 2025: +7.0%" }, "five_year": { "period": "12 months to September 2021", "value": 51817, "comparable": true, "rel": 6.13119246579308, "text": "vs 12 months to September 2021: +6.1%" } }, "direction": { "type": "context", "rule": "Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series.", "key": "rising", "label": "Rising", "arrow": "▲", "rel": 7.0, "delta": null, "vs": "12 months to September 2025", "cur": "12 months to September 2026", "why": " The change is 7.0% of the earlier value, at or above the 5% threshold.", "change": "7.0%", "one_year": "+7.0%", "five": { "period": "12 months to September 2021", "comparable": true, "rel": 6.13119246579308, "text": "+6.1%", "years": 5 } }, "decided_by": [ { "body": "POL", "name": "Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board", "decides": "Oversees the Victoria Police Department, appoints its chief constable and prepares its budget.", "laws": [ { "key": "pa26", "label": "Police Act, s. 26", "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96367_01#section26" }, { "key": "pa27", "label": "Police Act, s. 27", "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96367_01#section27" } ], "last": null, "next": { "text": "Provisional budget due to the councils by November 30, 2026 (Police Act, s. 27)", "label": "Police Act, s. 27", "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96367_01#section27" } }, { "body": "COV", "name": "Victoria and Esquimalt councils", "decides": "Approve the police board’s budget. If they reject an item, either side can ask the Province to decide.", "laws": [ { "key": "pa27", "label": "Police Act, s. 27", "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96367_01#section27" }, { "key": "pa27d", "label": "Police Act, s. 27 (3)", "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96367_01#section27" } ], "last": null, "next": null }, { "body": "BC", "name": "Province of B.C.", "decides": "Sets standards for policing.", "laws": [ { "key": "pa40", "label": "Police Act, s. 40", "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96367_01#section40" } ], "last": null, "next": null } ], "main_decision_maker": "Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board" }