Crime may have fallen significantly in Regina in 2020, but residents are still looking to the Crime Stoppers program to leave anonymous tips.
In a media release, Regina Crime Stoppers showed that a significant number of tips came in last year despite the overall crime rate in the city falling by 30 per cent. The service received 1,125 tips, which was down 13 per cent from 2019’s total. Despite that drop, 2020 still saw Crime Stoppers’ third-highest number of tips since the service was created in 1984.
Those tips helped Regina police make 13 arrests and lay 30 charges. That is also down from the previous year’s 25 arrests and 62 charges. Tips helped police clear 52 cases, down from 58, and 11 payments worth $5,200 were awarded to tipsters.
“This year was actually less of aberration for us than what we might have expected given COVID-19 and some other crime trends,” said Craig Perrault, the president of Regina Crime Stoppers. “It shows that the efforts to let people know they have an anonymous way to report crime have been largely successful.”
Regina police chief Evan Bray agreed in a later media conference.
“I always say to be careful about how we talk about stats. The fact that our numbers of tips that were called in this year is a little bit lower than last year, does not mean that we didn’t have success,” he said.
Crime Stoppers is an anonymous intermediary service that allows people to make anonymous tips on criminal activity or missing persons, resulting in reward payments when that information leads to an arrest or the resolution of a case.
The service has helped police recover more than $11.2 million in drugs and stolen property since it was created.