Guelph’s violent crime is down but break-ins and mischief are on the rise, according to the latest Crime Severity Index data released by Statistics Canada on July 22, 2026.
The 2025 data shows Guelph’s violent crime severity index fell by 4.6% compared to 2024, while non-violent crime severity rose by 6.3%. The overall index now sits at 57.82, a 2% increase that drops Guelph to 12th place among Canada’s 41 largest cities, down from sixth in 2024.
Break-ins jumped 10.7% with 379 reported incidents, thefts rose 3% to 2,475 cases, and mischief spiked 12.4% to 730 occurrences. These property crimes drove the non-violent increase, even as violent crime declined.
Guelph Police Chief Gord Cobey credits the dedicated Intimate Partner Violence and Human Trafficking Unit, formed in January 2024, for the violent crime reduction. “The results demonstrate that Guelph continues to be a safe community, with our violent crime severity index falling by more than 4.6% from 2024,” Cobey said. To address property crime, the service pledged increased targeted patrols in the coming months.
The human trafficking unit now has eight members, up from four at its launch. Guelph maintains the highest human trafficking rate among major Canadian cities at 13.7 per 100,000 people, though police say this reflects better investigative resources rather than more trafficking. In 2025, Staff Sgt. Melanie Clark’s team conducted over 60 investigations, leading to six arrests and 20 charges.
