Fully reading the report, I think the statistics are reasonably presented. They specifically focused on the 250 m distance to better measure the effect of the injection site on the community.
The report also does not just compare the crime rates versus the prior year but compares them against a running average of the last 3 years AND also provides the same comparison for the downtown core AND versus the rest of the city to provide better understanding of the effect of the injection site.
Just extracting some numbers (Injection area, Centre City, Rest of City)
Police Calls Increase: 29%, 8%, 4%
Disorder Increase: 15%, -0.4%, 0%
Drug Increase:
276%, 21%, -11%
Violence Increase: 47%, 35%, 26%
B&E Increase: 45%, 55%, 8%
Vehicle Crime Increase: 63%, 5%, 0%
In nearly category, there is a massive increase in crime versus the downtown core even with a large visible increase in police presence. The increase is even more obvious versus looking the average for the city. I would suggest that the "spin" that the percentages look big because the numbers in 2015, 2016 and 2017 were "small" is exactly that, spin. The percentage increases are real and not a fantasy.
Also:
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/video?cli...ylistPageNum=1