REGINA - The latest stats from the Regina Police Service (RPS) Monthly Statistical Extract for November 2024 have been released.
According to the statistics, the number of crimes has been going down. Between the year-over-year for 2024 compared to 2023 in Nov., there is a 7.5 per cent decrease in crimes against property and a 1.6 per cent decrease in total crimes against a person.
Some of the significant drop-offs in the category include attempted murders, which has gone down by over 22 per cent and homicides, which are down 50 per cent.
During a media scrum, Regina Police Chief Farooq Hassan Sheikh talked about the decreases that stand out to him.
"I think what stands out for me is that some of the crimes [are] coming down, and some of the most serious crimes [are also] coming down, so that's really good news. When you talk about homicide, that's the worst crime that can happen, and when we see a downward in trending crime, specifically homicide, that's really, really good news."
He gave credit to the "first responders [that] are really good [when it comes to arriving quickly]. Our crime scene management is really, really effective, and our homicide team [that] come out regardless if they're on or off duty, and then they investigate it. I can say [there is a] very thorough investigation from start to finish [when the homicide team is working on a case]."
Sheikh also highlighted reported break-and-enter cases have gone down by nearly 22 per cent.
Compared to other provinces, Sheikh pointed out Regina’s reported cases of theft of motor vehicle have gone down by 13.6 per cent. Meanwhile, other areas across Canada continue to deal with rising cases of car theft.
While there is a lot of crime that has gone down, there is still work to be done in certain areas.
Sheikh spoke about the high 69 per cent of arsons cases back in February and how the city is working on clawing those numbers down.
The reported numbers of cases of arsons now sit at under 30 per cent. One new category under arsons is bin fire.
Sheikh spoke about why that category was added. "With our data that we used to provide [stats]. It was just arsons, so automatically people assumed it's residential structure. So we had to break it down to show exactly what was arsons to structure to residents to buildings to bins because any arson [is] serious, but an arson to a resident is far more serious, so we can understand and then we can put system processes in place to try to tackle [it]."
Another notable jump in crime is sexual assault cases, which is up by 14.6 per cent, while other sexual crimes are up over 50 per cent.
The biggest difference year-over-year in stats is high-speed zone issued tickets, which rose by over 92 per cent.
Regina Police Deputy Chief Lorilee Davies discussed why those numbers drastically rose.
"We had some technology issues with the cameras. Previously, that resulted in reduced numbers." Davies mentioned that the police have rectified those issues.
Another reason that caused the spike was due to mother nature. Davies alluded to the fact that "the roads were… not great. So, thankfully, people were slowing down. And then, if you think about license plates when they're obstructed by snow, it's hard to get a picture [of the licence plate]."
Davies was asked about educating people to ensure their licence plates are clear. While she said the police do their best to tell drivers about cleaning off their plates, "we [the police] appreciate [and understand when drivers are on the road] in the middle of a blizzard [that their plates will likely be covered up]. People probably aren't going to pull over on the side of the road to clean off their license plate, nor should they. And so we believe that people were slowing down, driving appropriately for the road conditions."
