Some crime down, but warm weather could lead to increase: Chief Bray

The temperature is rising, and Regina police expect a similar increase when it comes to calls they respond to.

Police Chief Evan Bray told Gormley on Wednesday that in 2020, there was a 25 to 30 per cent drop in crime in some categories in Canada. Saskatchewan was no different.

“What happened in 2021 (was) we started coming out of COVID and life was returning somewhat back to normal. People were transitioning back to the workplace and businesses were opening up and, as a result, people’s behaviour started to then demonstrate that crime was starting to go back to normal,” Bray said.

“We’re thinking that we’re going to see that continue to return to normal, but there have been a few categories where we’ve been pleasantly surprised.”

Bray said that crimes against the person — such as assaults — are down about 16 per cent to start 2022.

But property crimes are up around two per cent, with compounds and detached garages being targeted.

Bray also expects more calls when it comes to vehicle traffic and noise. He said those types of calls can be tough for police to enforce when they’re not in the area when it happens, so the person calling it in needs to provide as much detail as possible when describing the vehicle.

But Bray said there is one big problem still causing issues in the city, and it’s not a new one.

“Drugs continue to be a huge problem in our community. Drugs drive crime, drugs drive assaults, drugs drive overdoses. It’s a big, big problem in our city. This is an area where the stats don’t necessarily tell the story. If you look at our crime stats with regard to drugs, it looks as though we’re laying a lot less charges,” Bray said.

“The reality is we are laying a lot less simple possession charges against individuals and we are doing some huge, successful projects on people that are bringing the drugs into our community, trafficking them into the community. That may result in one or two charges. However, the amount of fentanyl or opioids that we seize are in the millions of dollars.”