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SURREY, B.C. — Mounties say a significant increase in violent crime in the first quarter of 2019 in Surrey, B.C., is partly due to a new Statistics Canada reporting requirement, and the change is likely to affect police data across the country.

The federal agency announced revisions to its Uniform Crime Reporting Survey last year, following national media attention and police reviews of the use of the “unfounded” designation for sexual assaults.

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The changes took effect Jan. 1 and mean that “founded” occurrences now include offences where there may be no evidence to substantiate that an incident took place, but there is also no credible evidence to confirm it didn’t happen.

Previously, offences that could not be substantiated with evidence were not included in a city’s crime statistics.

Surrey RCMP say it’s too early to fully assess the impact of the changes on crime statistics, but its analysis shows that some crime types are impacted more than others including assaults, uttering threats and shoplifting.