‘A bad year:’ Regina mayor on crime stats

Mayor Michael Fougere hopes the latest crime severity index (CSI) is a “blip.”

The latest CSI out this week has Regina topping the list for violent and property crime.

“You don’t want to be number one in this category, no question about that,” he told the CJME Morning Show.

But Fougere also said he’s looking at the bigger picture when it comes to crime in the city.

“We knew from our stats last year that crime had been going up and is going up, but if you take the long view over the past 10 years, we have seen crime go down,” he explained. “I don’t want to minimize this last year – it’s been a problem – but if you take the longer view on trends, we have been going down.”

Fougere said the CSI had fallen 36 per cent over the past decade, while violent crime specifically fell 40 per cent, non-violent crime fell 34 per cent and overall crime fell 25 per cent.

“We had a bad year last year,” he said, adding that a lot of the property crime had to do with people leaving their keys in their vehicles. “But also we have seen more crime with guns, gang-related activity and drug activity that caused a problem last year.”

Fougere confirmed crime rates have been going down in 2017.

“Hopefully we had a blip and we’re going back down to the trend for reductions.”

The Regina mayor said he’s not concerned this will deter people from relocating to his city.

“The choice of investors and people moving here is more diversified, more complex than that,” he explained.

Fougere also added current residents trust and have confidence and support for Regina police officers, citing a survey that was done nearly two years ago. He said another survey will be conducted this fall.