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London has one of the lowest rates of violent crime among Canadian cities, despite having fewer police staff and putting less cash toward running the department, new figures show.

A newly released report shows London had the lowest violent crime severity index of 11 Canadian cities last year.

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That’s in spite of having the second lowest cost per capita to run the police force and the second lowest number of police staff members, proportionally, according to new rankings from the Municipal Benchmarking Network Canada.

That annual report weighs up 16 Canadian communities including Toronto, Montreal, Windsor, Hamilton and Halifax on everything from garbage collection to shelter spaces.

Five of the communities are upper-tier municipalities where services such as policing cover a regional area, so they’re ranked separately.

Coun. Mo Salih, who chairs the police services board, said he’s pleased to see how London stacks up on violent crime, crediting officers who “give 110 per cent for Londoners.