Officers have charged more people this year for crimes against property and against fellow residents, with the police chief saying it’s the same small group of people committing many of these offences.
There were 187 crimes committed against people during the first four months of this year compared to 159 during the same period last year and 118 two years ago, recent crime data shows.
Furthermore, there were 585 incidents of crimes committed against property from January to April compared to 517 episodes during the same period last year and 533 two years ago.
The Moose Jaw Police Service presented the data during the recent Board of Police Commissioners’ meeting, while Chief Rick Bourassa discussed the numbers during a media scrum afterwards.
One local reporter informed the chief that based on research, nine residents have likely committed 433 crimes during the past two years. He wondered if the police also believed the same people were committing most crimes.
“That is pretty consistent around the world, certainly here and in other places. We heard about the (increased incidents of) assault police officer situation (earlier in the meeting). That was one person responsible for half of our incidents. That is fairly normal,” Bourassa said.
“It’s not a lot of people involved in many of the situations we deal with. So we do see the same people over and over again.”
Bourassa was unsure if nine people were responsible for most of the crimes but knew it wasn’t 400. While he didn’t have exact data, based on experience and anecdotal stories, “it’s a fairly small number of people who re-offend frequently.”
Increases in crime rates
The Moose Jaw Police Service does not like to see these increases in crime — decreases would be better — and would prefer if there were zero incidents, even though that is unrealistic, said Bourassa.
Meanwhile, there tend to be cycles in crime where the organization sees an increase in offences and directs its resources to combat those problems, he continued. It’s usually a few people committing the bulk of those crimes, so those crime waves decrease when officers intervene and arrest people.
The organization will continue to hold people accountable and track those numbers, while it will analyze national crime data in July to determine how Moose Jaw compares to other municipalities.
“And speaking with other chiefs — not only provincially but across the country — we’re all seeing these sorts of rises. And it will take some time to understand fully what’s driving those,” said Bourassa.
“We do know some of it can be influenced by the economy and by people’s resources … ,” he continued. “We do know that we’ve come through some pretty challenging couple of years with the pandemic and we did see some behavioural changes on a larger scale and less civility.
“We don’t know if that is going to continue, but we will keep watching that.”
The drug trade could be driving these crimes — although that’s been happening for many years — while much of it is connected to people’s need for money to support their addictions, Bourassa said.
The MJPS is working to halt the drug trade and trafficking and has increased its resources to respond to them, he continued. The public should expect to see the police pursuing more projects that apprehend drug suppliers and hold them accountable.
“But you’re absolutely right. A lot of that (crime and theft) is related to the drug trade. Everything’s got value to somebody,” added Bourassa.
The next Board of Police Commissioners meeting is Thursday, June 8, at 7 p.m. in the Moose Jaw Public Library’s south meeting room. The public is welcome to attend.
