Photo: Marilyne Lesage · CC BY-SA 3.0Fewer crimes per resident are recorded in Desbiens than in 69% of Canadian towns
Annual rates stand at 12.1 violent incidents and 11.6 incidents of property crime for every thousand residents, next to 12.0 and 31.2 in the typical Canadian town of 2,500+. Even so, the Safety Grade comes out at B+, drawn from crime the police covering Desbiens reported through 2023 to 2025. Split in two, the index gives 81.8 for violence and 37.1 for everything else (normally 86.4 and 62.8).
Statistics Canada, police-reported crime, 2023–2025 means. The index weighs each crime by its seriousness; rates are incidents per 1,000 residents a year. Crime severity, crime rate and incident counts for the Lac-Saint-Jean-Est MRC.
What stands out about safety in Desbiens
Above-typical clearance
Weighted by seriousness, 59% of crime in Desbiens ends in a charge or is otherwise solved: 73% of violent crime and 46% of the rest. Across Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more the figure is 34%. Questions ↓
Violence weighs more than the rest
Violent crime scores 81.8 on Desbiens’s index against 86.4 for the typical Canadian town of 2,500+; non-violent crime, 37.1 against 62.8. By type ↓
Lighter than in 2023
Between 2023 and 2025, Desbiens moved from 51.8 to 43.2, while the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ went from 70.6 to 62.9. Year by year ↓
Near the Quebec middle
Desbiens’s index of 49.6 compares with 56.1 for the typical town in Quebec. Towns its size ↓
Written from Statistics Canada’s police-reported crime by police service and detachment, 2023–2025. Figures are what police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Desbiens’s B+
The grade weighs the Crime Severity Index and its violent half, averaged over 2023–2025, against every Canadian town and city neighbourhood of 1,000 people or more.
The Crime Severity Index and its two halves, beside the typical figure for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more.
Desbiens’s index fell 17% from 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
Its heaviest year fell in the middle, 2024, at 53.7; 2025 was the lightest, at 43.2. The comparison line, the typical Canadian town of 2,500+, runs from 70.6 in 2023 to 62.9 by 2025.
Every year as a table
| Year | Desbiens | Typical town of 2,500+ |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 43.2 | 62.9 |
| 2024 | 53.7 | 68.5 |
| 2023 | 51.8 | 70.6 |
Statistics Canada, Crime Severity Index by police service, each year as published. Typical: the median of Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more.
The Crime Severity Index of the police covering Desbiens, each year, against the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
Around 650 violent incidents a year in the 53,800-resident police area around Desbiens, 2023–2025
Violent incidents per 1,000 a year, 2023–2025
Property crimes per 1,000 a year, 2023–2025
Statistics Canada counts actual incidents; those police record as unfounded are listed apart and kept out of its crime rates and severity index. Each incident is filed under its most serious violation, which the survey sets partly by the maximum penalty.
Add about 620 property crimes and 430 other violations a year (2023–2025 average). The grid is 1,000 residents, a coloured dot for each incident a year at these rates.
Which crimes make up Desbiens’s figures
Assault sits below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0.3 | 0.01 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 42.7 | 0.8 | 56% |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 15 | 0.3 | 95% |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 1.3 | 0.03 | — |
| Robbery | 7.3 | 0.1 | 92% |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 6 | 0.1 | 95% |
| Other violent violations | 9.7 | 0.2 | 62% |
| Breaking and entering | 109.3 | 2 | 40% |
| Possession of stolen property | 11.7 | 0.2 | 85% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 60.7 | 1.1 | 36% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 15.7 | 0.3 | 13% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 170.7 | 3.2 | 34% |
| Mischief | 92 | 1.7 | 31% |
| Weapons violations | 10.3 | 0.2 | 75% |
| Administration of justice violations | 135.7 | 2.5 | 94% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 22.7 | 0.4 | 85% |
| Drug violations | 72.3 | 1.3 | 70% |
| Impaired driving | 94 | 1.8 | 92% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 64.7 | 1.2 | 17% |
Statistics Canada’s violation groups for the whole police service or detachment, incidents a year its own. Cleared: incidents solved by a charge or otherwise, as a share of those reported.
Incidents per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025 means, against the typical figure for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more.
Crime in the places around Desbiens
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desbiens | 1,034 | 49.6 | 81.8 | B+ |
| Métabetchouan--Lac-à-la-Croix | 4,230 | 49.6 | 81.8 | B+ |
| Chambord | 1,800 | 73.3 | 114.4 | C+ |
| Saint-Gédéon | 2,349 | 49.6 | 81.8 | B+ |
2 nearby places have no figure apart from this one: they share a police service.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The clearance rate. The clearance rate is the share of incidents police solve, by a charge or otherwise, weighted by seriousness like the index. It isn’t a conviction rate.
- Severity, weighed. One robbery outweighs a run of minor thefts here, since every crime counts by the sentences courts give it. Statistics Canada adds: “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.”
- One figure for the MRC. The Sûreté du Québec reports by MRC, so the figures cover every municipality it polices there, Desbiens among them.
- What 100 means. Its scale starts from Canada in 2006, set at 100, so a figure above 100 means more serious crime per resident than the country had then.
Questions about safety in Desbiens
Is Desbiens safe?
Against a typical 67.2 for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more, Desbiens’s Crime Severity Index stands at 49.6 for 2023–2025. Its police record 12.1 violent incidents and 11.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year.
What is the most common crime in Desbiens?
Assault is the most common, at 5.5 per 1,000 residents a year, then other Criminal Code offences (3.4) and Criminal Code traffic offences (3.3).
Is crime going up in Desbiens?
Down 17%: 51.8 in 2023, 43.2 in 2025.
How much of Desbiens’s crime do police solve?
Counting serious crimes for more, 59% end in a charge or are otherwise solved (34% for the typical Canadian town of 2,500+); split up, that is 73% of violent and 46% of non-violent crime.
Whose figures are these?
A shared service or detachment’s, reported as one for Desbiens and everywhere else it polices.
Source: Statistics Canada, police-reported crime by police service and detachment, 2023–2025 (Statistics Canada Open Licence); TownRatings calculation.
Sources: Statistics Canada, Crime severity index and weighted clearance rates, police services (tables 35-10-0186 to 0190, 0061, 0063, 0064), 2023–2025 · Statistics Canada, Incident-based crime statistics by detailed violations, police services (35-10-0178 to 0185) · Safety Grade: TownRatings calculation. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).