Amherst’s Crime Severity Index fell from 163.3 in 2024 to 111.8 in 2025, a substantial one-year improvement. Police-reported incidents also declined, from 1,722 to 1,256.
At the same time, Amherst ranked third among Atlantic urban police jurisdictions in the 2025 Crime Severity Index (CSI), behind Bathurst and Greater Moncton, New Brunswick. The figures call for a measured reading: the ranking gives one view of police-reported crime, but it does not tell the whole story of a community.
Statistics Canada released its 2025 police-service data on July 22, 2026. The CSI values below are from its Atlantic provinces police-services table.
Atlantic top 10
- Bathurst, N.B.: 119.7
- Greater Moncton, N.B.: 116.1
- Amherst, N.S.: 111.8
- Summerside, P.E.I.: 110.3
- Saint John, N.B.: 98.5
- Truro, N.S.: 98.5
- Kentville, N.S.: 94.0
- Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L.: 92.5
- Gander, N.L.: 90.5
- Miramichi, N.B.: 88.9
The figures are index values for police jurisdictions, not a count of crimes. In this comparison, Amherst’s 2025 value is 51.5 points below its 2024 reading. That change is important to note alongside the ranking: Amherst placed third in the Atlantic comparison, while its index and the number of police-reported incidents both fell from the previous year.
What the index can, and cannot, show
Statistics Canada’s CSI is designed to account for both the number of police-reported incidents and their seriousness. Offences are assigned weights, with more serious offences receiving greater weight. The index is therefore not simply a tally of incidents, and an index value is not a rate per 100,000 people.
The Atlantic ranking uses values for police-service jurisdictions. It is not a ranking based on raw totals of reported incidents. Halifax, with a value of 68.6, and St. John’s, at 79.2, sit outside this particular comparison; their figures should not be treated as directly comparable raw totals against the police-service values in the list.
That distinction matters, especially in a community of roughly 10,000 people. In a smaller population, a handful of serious cases can move the numbers sharply. The CSI gives readers a way to compare recorded crime severity across jurisdictions, but it should not be read as a complete account of life in any one place.
Rates remain above provincial figures
The year-over-year decline is encouraging, but Amherst’s reported crime rates remain above Nova Scotia’s. These are rates per 100,000 population, not counts of incidents.
The official figures provided for this comparison show Amherst’s overall rate at 12,470 per 100,000, compared with Nova Scotia’s overall rate of 6,702. Amherst’s overall rate is reported as 86.1% above the provincial rate. For violent crime, the figures are 2,601 in Amherst and 1,562 provincially, with Amherst’s rate reported as 66.5% higher.
The reported property-crime comparison is 88.0% above the provincial rate. In the source figures, the property comparison pairs Amherst’s overall rate of 12,470 per 100,000 with Nova Scotia’s property rate of 6,702 per 100,000. These are presented as reported; they are rates, not incident totals.
Statistics Canada publishes detailed police-reported incident information in its incident-based crime statistics tables. Rates and index values are different measures, and they answer different questions. Keeping that in mind helps make the comparison clearer.
Local events in the wider picture
Recent events in Amherst include the fatal shooting of Chris Leggett, 41, on Prince Arthur Street on April 13, 2026. Three people have been charged with first-degree murder: Sean Eugene Patriquin, 56; Natasha Deborah Austin, 42; and Michael James Ryan, 34. A preliminary inquiry is scheduled for April 20–22, 2027. The accused are charged, and the charges have not been proven in court. CBC News has reported on the case.
A separate public-health concern was raised in March 2025, when Nova Scotia Health issued a drug alert after a seizure in the Amherst area was found to contain N-pyrrolidino metonitazene, a synthetic opioid described as twice as powerful as fentanyl. The substance was mixed with fentanyl, cocaine, caffeine and a tranquilizer. The alert is available through Nova Scotia Health’s notices.
These events are part of the local context, but they do not, by themselves, explain changes in the CSI. The index includes a range of police-reported offences, and we should not assume that a particular incident caused Amherst’s year-over-year movement.
A statistic, not a verdict on a neighbourhood
Statistics Canada cautions that the Crime Severity Index is not an indicator of overall safety and should be read in the broader community context. A high or low figure does not describe every resident’s experience, and an index value is not a verdict on any neighbourhood.
For Amherst, the picture includes both a significant decline in the 2025 index and incident count, and rates that remain above provincial figures. Both points matter. The improvement from 163.3 to 111.8 is real and worth acknowledging, while the broader numbers remain part of an ongoing conversation about community wellbeing.
We’ll continue to follow local issues and share updates through The Cumberland Gazette’s Local & Global News page. For now, the figures tell us something specific about reported crime and its severity, not everything about Amherst or the people who call it home.