Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
The latest monthly crime numbers are in, and they are seen as positive news by the Regina Police Service.
Crime stats for the month of June showed a year-to-date decrease in crimes against the person, down 0.6 per cent compared to the same month the year before.
Crimes against property were down even more, by 13.2 per cent year-to-date through June. That amounts to a decline of 794 offences year over year.
Combined, both categories are down 10.4 per cent with a total of 6,957 incidents, down from 7,762 the year before.
Other year-to-date numbers through June saw a decrease of auto thefts by 17.2 per cent. Robberies were down 13.1 per cent, and 9.8 per cent fewer break and enters, but there were increases in assaults (9.1 per cent) and sexual assaults (8.2 per cent).
There were three homicides through June, the same as the previous year. Two of the 2024 homicides have been solved.
The overall numbers were cause for optimism for Regina Police Chief Farooq Sheikh, who pointed to progress made by the police force.
“Crimes against the person is coming down,” said Sheikh, “and I’m happy to say that we’ve seen reductions in violent crime across the board.”
There was also headway seen in the fight against arson.
Two months ago, police reported a 69 per cent year-to-year increase in arson fires for 2024.
But that year-to-year increase has now been knocked back down to 38.1 per cent. The number of arson incidents in June was 45, just one more than the year before.
“In the last two months, we’ve seen it start to claw down. The numbers have come down significantly compared to where they were two months ago,” said Sheikh.
Arson has been a growing concern in Regina, with an increase of more than 600 per cent in the past decade. There have been some highly-publicized arsons at buildings in the city in the last several months, but structure fires do not make up the majority of arson cases.
Sheikh said garbage bin fires make up most of the arsons in Regina. According to numbers he shared from two months ago, trash fires account for 71 per cent of the total.
The police chief indicated arson has been a recent focus for the police force, with investigative work happening to help get a handle on it.
“We’re trying, obviously, to look at all arsons,” said Sheikh. “We’re trying to make sure that we’re really positive, when we have it, to detain a person, arrest a person and charge them.”
Regina Police concerned about gang activity
The crime statistics report followed the release of the Crime Severity numbers for Saskatchewan last week, in which a number of police organizations, including the RCMP, highlighted the rise of gang activity in the province.
It’s an issue Regina Police Service continues to deal with.
“No matter where you are across the world, gangs issues are always a problem,’ said Sheikh.
At the police commissioners meeting where the stats were unveiled, Sheikh highlighted the proactive policing efforts by the force. He pointed to traffic stops as something that’s making a difference in seizing weapons and drugs and in making arrests.
“When we look at crime, violent crime, the amount of times we’re taking out people for drugs, for drug trafficking, proactive traffic stops, taking out a number of stuff, that’s all linked to gangs,” said Sheikh.
“Proactive policing does work. It helps reduce crime.”
