REGINA - The Regina Board of Police Commissioners received the crime stats for August, and they are showing an upward trend in the city.
In that statistical report presented last Tuesday, Regina Police Service are reporting there were a total 7,735 dispatched Calls for Service in August up 9.6 per cent from the same month a year ago. Alarm Calls for Service were down year-to-date by 5.9 per cent.
Most notable in August was a rise in Crimes Against the Person of 24.6 per cent compared to August 2022. Crimes Against Property were up 10.5 per cent increase compared to that same month as well. Combined, both Crimes Against the Person and Crimes Against Property saw a combined year-to-date increase of 13.3 per cent.
For year to date statistics, Crimes Against the Person saw 473 incidents compared to August 2022 for a 24.6 per cent increase. There was an increase in robberies by 61 incidents or an increase of 37.2%.
Crimes Against Property are up 10.5 per cent, or an increase of 803 over 2022. Theft Under $5,000 is up 430 incidents for a 12.6 per cent increase. There were also 279 more Mischief and Wilful Damage incidents for a 19.3 per cent rise.
Overall, RPS saw 1,276 more combined Crimes Against the Person and Crimes Against Property combined in 2023 compare to last year, up 13.3 per cent.
There is some good news: thefts of auto rates were down 11.3 per cent or by 65 incidents compared to last year.
As for the increases being seen, Regina Interim Police Chief Dean Rae said on Tuesday that the robberies increase is concerning, particularly with an increase being seen in “random” robbery incidents.
Rae described those incidents as ones where the “victim, and the accused aren’t known to each other, so they’re essentially a stranger. So we have people committing robberies on individuals, whether they’re a street robbery or whatever the case may be, they don’t know those people, so it’s random, and that’s what I was referring to. So we are seeing an increase in those random robberies within the community and that’s concerning for us.”
On the increase in assaults, “pretty much across the board in assaults we are seeing increases. And they could be anything from domestic conflict to other types of assaults — simple bar fights or things like that that we’re seeing increases as well.”
Rae attributed the increases to a return to normal pre-COVID crime levels.
“Back in 2019. we’ve seen crime similar to what we’re seeing right now, which is concerning for us. We don’t like to see an increase in crime, and especially when we’re seeing crimes against persons. We’re seeing increasing victimization within those individuals in our community. So that’s a concern.”
As for what they are doing to respond, Rae said they are trying to “make sure that our members have some proactive time to go out and do some active patrols, try to identify concerning people that may be out in the community or be able to spend some time in areas where we’re seeing increase numbers of crime. And then they can do some proactive work to help reduce the prevalence of that crime in that area.”
In addition to the crime stats, the Board of Police Commissioners also heard the report from the Pursuit Review Board on police pursuits last year.
The report showed that In 2022, RPS members were involved in 17 incidents deemed to be pursuits as defined in the policy manual, down from 35 incidents in 2021. Of the 17, 13 are considered Regina Police Service Policy Manual. This was down from 2021, which saw RPS members involved in 35 pursuits.
Of the 17, 13 were classified as Level 2 - deviation from Policy with just cause. The other four were classified as Level 3 - deviation from Policy with no cause. In the Level 2 incidents, supervisory consultation took place, and the incident was considered and applicable recommendations for coaching or training was implemented through the shift Watch Commander and direct supervisors. For Level 3s the method of correction was coaching / training through the shift Watch Commander.
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