Abbotsford-Mission will retain its dubious title as Canada's murder capital, according to numbers released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday.

The metropolis of Abbotsford-Mission had the highest homicide rate for 2009 in Canada with nine murders last year.

The fact Abbotsford-Mission topped the country in this category didn't surprise the Abbotsford Police Department after 2009 was peppered with local gang hits.

"We kind of new this was going to happen," APD spokesman Const. Ian MacDonald said Tuesday.

"A lot of the comments that we made even in 2009 were indicative of the fact that we were in advance preparing ourselves for the fact the numbers as they related to homicides were not going to be favourable for us."

Abbotsford was also named Canada's murder capital in 2003, however the city has counted just one murder so far in 2010.

But one criminologist isn't putting too much stock into the numbers released Tuesday.

"It makes a good headline, but there's no substance to it at all," said John Martin, a criminology professor at the University of the Fraser Valley.

He added the number of murders released by Stats Can doesn't include cities or towns with a population of less than 100,000 residents.

"If you did that, Abbotsford wouldn't even be in the top 10."

Martin also cited "jurisdiction" as one of the reasons the numbers might be higher in some areas compared to others.

Total crimes in Abbotsford-Mission decreased drastically in 2009 compared to the previous year.

Stats Can reported a 22 per cent drop in total crimes in the area, however the region is still ranked as the sixth highest amongst Canadian metropolises with a total of 111.4 on the Total Crime Severity Index.

Regina had the highest at 143.7.

Again the news came as little surprise to the APD.

"We've been messaging pretty hard through 2009 that we're making major end roads in pretty much every other major category except for homicide," MacDonald said.

Violent crimes in the area also declined by four per cent in 2009 compared to 2008, but Martin again warned about keeping perspective on the numbers.

"It's not [total] crime, it's crime that comes to the attention of the police," he told the Times.

"A significant decrease in that might be good news but it can also say something about police resources, the ability of the police to respond to calls and it says a lot about the willingness of victims and witness to report crime to police.

"It's a snapshot."