MOOSE JAW 鈥� Crimes against people and property in April and May continued to decline, according to recent police data, although calls for service jumped by nearly 15 per cent during those two months.
The Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) presented the crime statistics for those months during the Board of Police Commissioners鈥� June 18 meeting.
The data for April showed that total crimes against people declined by 2.8 per cent year-over-year 鈥� from 178 incidents to 173 鈥� and total crimes against property declined by 41.8 per cent year-over-year, from 608 incidents to 354. However, calls for service went from 6,178 calls to 6,731, a jump of nine per cent.
The only increase in people-related crimes was in common assaults, which went from 71 incidents in April 2024 to 76 this April, a rise of seven per cent. Also, the only increase in property-related crimes was with arson, as there were zero last April and two this past April.
Meanwhile, May鈥檚 data showed that total crimes against people declined by 2.2 per cent year-over-year 鈥� from 230 incidents to 225 鈥� and total crimes against property dropped 39.9 per cent, from 796 incidents to 478. However, calls for service increased from 8,041 calls to 8,488, a rise of 5.6 per cent.
The only increases in people-related crimes were in common assaults, which went from 89 incidents last May to 94 this past May, a rise of 5.6 per cent, and in aggravated assaults, which went from zero incidents last year to four this year.
Also, the only increase in property-related crimes was in arson, which saw zero incidents last May and three this past May.
Acting Chief Rick Johns said the police service has begun to see 鈥渁 bit of a pattern鈥� in the data, although it didn鈥檛 want to be 鈥渢oo optimistic鈥� at the start of the year since there are usually ebbs and flows in crimes.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still waiting to see in the summer months, as the warm weather approaches, if that will change and increase because 鈥� weather can always play a factor in how busy we can be,鈥� he said, acknowledging that the cooler weather in April and May may have contributed to the decreases.
鈥淎nd despite the fact we are dropping in certain crime categories, we are still remaining fairly busy 鈥� ,鈥� the acting chief continued. 鈥淪o the community still has expectations that we attend and provide assistance in a number of ways.鈥�
The decrease in crimes is encouraging and is mainly due to front-line officers de-escalating or discouraging situations before they turn into crimes, Johns added.
The police board asked Johns to explain why crime-related statistics were down, but calls for service were up, as that didn鈥檛 make sense to members.
The MJPS reports are connected to Statistics Canada and are similar to what other municipalities in Canada track, Johns said. However, the MJPS has an internal database with more categories that don鈥檛 have crime-related codes and that don鈥檛 appear on the monthly reports, such as attending to a sick person.
Furthermore, the agency may track calls from downtown businesses, but it depends on what the issue is, he continued. It will report break-ins as a crime, but it will report calls about suspicious persons as a call for service.
鈥淚f we were to track every category (and report them to the board), it would be a lot of pages,鈥� Johns added.
Since the crime reports highlight drug incidents, reporters asked the acting chief after the meeting about whether the MJPS was seeing a higher-quality type of cocaine that was appearing in Edmonton.
In response, Johns said that while the agency can confirm a substance is cocaine through basic testing, it can鈥檛 determine its purity. Instead, it must send that substance 鈥� and all other seized drugs 鈥� to a laboratory. However, it usually only receives the results at a court trial.
Johns added that the police service is always concerned about people who use pure-quality drugs, especially those more familiar with ingesting less potent cocaine, since they may 鈥渋nadvertently overdose鈥� or have an increased risk of overdosing.
The next police board meeting is on Wednesday, July 16.
