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MELFORT — The severity of crime within Melfort’s city boundaries has risen in 2020, but has gone down in the surrounding rural region.

Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index (CSI) was released July 27. It measures changes in the level of severity of crime in Canada from year to year. Crimes are assigned weights according to their “level of seriousness,” which is based on the severity of sentences for crimes.

The index includes all Criminal Code violations, including traffic and drug violations and all federal statutes.

Within the City of Melfort, the CSI score was 133 in 2020. It was 99.02 in 2019 and 68.07 in 2018. 

Of 16 municipalities that received scores, Melfort ranked fifth. Of 93 policing districts that received scores, the city ranked 41st.

The rural areas around Melfort got a score of 72.89 in 2020. It was 103.42 in 2019 and 58.12 in 2018. Out of 93 policing districts, rural Melfort ranked 66th.

Police reported they dealt with 702 total incidents within the City of Melfort in 2020, and 528 in the rural region. In 2019, the city saw 576 incidents, while the rural area saw 553.

As a whole, Saskatchewan had a CSI score of 141.11 in 2020, a decrease from 2019’s score of 149.64.

The highest CSI in the province was seen in Black Lake, with a score of 1,153.72. The municipality with the highest score was North Battleford at 421.52.

However, data for detachment areas with relatively low populations “should be used with caution,” according to Statistics Canada. Low populations can explain, to some degree, why index scores can be high.