The Yukon’s 2018 crime rate is the third-highest per capita in the country, despite lower numbers than the previous year.

That finding is in a comprehensive report released by the Yukon Bureau of Statistics.

“Despite this reduction, the Yukon RCMP has not seen a decrease in workload/calls for service,” RCMP Insp. Lindsay Ellis said in an email to the Star earlier this fall.

“These numbers provide only a snapshot in time. We look forward to hopefully seeing the trend of decreasing crime statistics continue over the years.”

In 2018, police reported 7,941 criminal incidents in the Yukon, excluding traffic violations.

About half of these incidents were property crimes and 20 per cent were violent Criminal Code violations.

The remaining 30 per cent consisted of “other” violations, mainly disturbing the peace (2,531 incidents) and administration of justice (741 incidents).

The Yukon reported 3,947 incidents of property crime in 2018, an increase of 6.9 percent from 2017.

More than half of these crimes were reported as mischief.

Approximately 30 per cent were reported as theft, the majority under $5,000, and the remainder were reported as breaking and entering and fraud.

The territory saw 1,563 violent criminal code violations in 2018.

There were 1,037 incidents of assault, accounting for 66.3 per cent of the year’s violent violations.

Collectively, uttering threats and harassment accounted for 24 per cent with 119 incidents.

In 2018, there were three homicide incidents and two attempted murders.

In 2018, there were 612 Criminal Code traffic violations in the Yukon.

Impaired driving accounted for 88.2 per cent of these with 540 incidents, the highest number the territory has seen in the last 10 years.

Approximately 95 per cent of the violations were due to impairment from alcohol and three per cent were due to impairment from drugs.

The remainder of reported traffic violations were due to driving while prohibited (37 per cent) and the dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, vessel or aircraft (27 per cent).

The Yukon RCMP reported 166 drug violations in 2018, 45 of which cited possession of cannabis pre-legalization in October 2018.

There were five cases of trafficking heroin, which was more counts than in the last decade combined. There were 70 cases of trafficking cocaine and six cases of trafficking cannabis pre-legalization.

Seventy-two per cent of the Yukon’s reported violations in 2018 occurred in Whitehorse and three per cent occurred in Dawson City.

Beaver Creek, Ross River and Pelly Crossing all experienced a drop in reported crime of more than 10 per cent compared to the previous year.

Watson Lake experienced the highest rise with an 8.6 per cent increase, or 47 more crimes than in 2017.

The crime report states that “the number of actual incidents refers to the total number of incidents reported to the police minus incidents proven to be unfounded following preliminary investigation in any given year.”

The report also says that some municipalities might deal with minor offences using bylaws rather than Criminal Code provisions.