P.E.I. comes up short on women in policing

Prince Edward Island has the lowest proportion of women police officers in the country.

An annual report on police resources from Statistics Canada, released last week, found in 2017 just 14.9 per cent of the Island's police officers were women. That compares to a national rate of 21.4 per cent, and is the lowest rate among the provinces.

Nationally the rate is slowly growing, while on the Island it is shrinking.

The number of women officers peaked at 42 in 2012, which represented 17.0 per cent of the force.

Lowest policing levels

P.E.I. also has the smallest number of police officers per capita.

In 2017 the Island had 146 police officers per 100,000 population, compared to a national average of 188.

Those officers on average dealt with 28.3 criminal incidents each in 2016, just slightly over the national average.

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