How bad is crime in Burlington, really?

The best comparable measure available puts Halton well below nearby large police services, and in 2025 several familiar property crimes fell sharply. The category moving the other way is fraud.

There is one important limitation. Burlington doesn't get its own Crime Severity Index because it's policed by Halton Regional Police along with Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills. Statistics Canada publishes the cleanest police-service comparison at the Halton level, not as a Burlington-only score.

The Crime Severity Index, or CSI, gives more weight to more serious offences instead of simply counting every reported crime the same way.

Halton's CSI was 31.2 in 2024, compared with 66.2 in Hamilton and 68.7 in Toronto. Every nearby large police service in this comparison was higher.

The 2025 numbers point in the same general direction. Halton police recorded 15,673 total crimes, down 1.8% from the year before. Property crime fell 4.3%, auto theft dropped 20.1% and break-and-enter fell 10.8%.

But not every category fell. Reported fraud climbed 12.7%, to 2,537 incidents. Theft over $5,000 jumped 68.1%, to 459, while violent crime edged higher from 2,377 incidents to 2,420.

Fraud is increasing

Halton's reported fraud count has now risen every year since 2021, from 1,017 incidents to 1,411, 1,554, 2,252 and then 2,537 in 2025.

Across Canada, fraud has also become a much larger problem. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says Canadians reported more than 112,000 frauds in 2025, with losses above $704 million. The scams it highlights include fake investment platforms, romance schemes, identity theft, phishing messages and remote-access bank-investigator schemes.

Those crimes can happen without anyone breaking into a house or stealing a car. A victim can be reached by phone, text, email or an online platform, which helps explain why fraud can move differently from traditional property crime.

That national pattern is a useful clue, but it isn't proof of what caused Halton's increase. Halton police haven't published a verified explanation for the latest 12.7% rise, so we can't say those same scams are specifically responsible for the extra reports in Burlington or across the region.

So is Burlington getting more dangerous? The broad data says no. Halton remains a low-crime policing region compared with nearby large services, while total crime, auto theft and break-and-enter all fell in 2025.

What appears to be changing is the type of risk. Fraud is rising quickly even while several traditional property crimes are falling. That's the category worth watching next.