Assaults against police, thefts of high-priced items and issuing speeding tickets were the main crime statistics that the Board of Police Commissioners focused on during its mid-January meeting.
Attacks on police had increased “a lot” year over year, said Commissioner Nicole Swanson. The crime statistics data for 2023 showed there were 23 attacks last year versus 11 in 2022, a jump of 109.1 per cent.
Such incidents had increased, while the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) has been reviewing those situations, said Deputy Chief Rick Johns. Most assaults are by offenders who punch, kick and spit at police while being arrested, while offenders usually spit at multiple officers during that process.
Most assaults against police — and assaults in general — are connected to an overall increase in violent crime since residents act less civilly and respectfully to others, he added.
Saskatchewan’s police chiefs are seeing similar situations and are discussing how they can address these problems, said Chief Rick Bourassa. He also reaffirmed that the decrease in civility is affecting the MJPS’s members and their interactions with people.
Swanson then noted that thefts over $5,000 had jumped 95.2 per cent — 41 incidents from 21 — year over year and wondered whether it was because inflation had increased the cost of products.
The police service is reviewing that category because it wants to ensure that the values of stolen products are accurate and that the agency is correctly entering that data, said Johns. The MJPS uses a symbol to log thefts over $5,000, but if members don’t understand it, there may be “inadvertent errors” where officers enter data as thefts under $5,000.
The massive volume of thefts also means it takes police more time to investigate such incidents and whether it’s high-value merchandise that thieves are stealing, the deputy chief added. He pointed out that there were 1,042 incidents of theft under $5,000 last year versus 900 in 2022, a 15.8-per-cent increase.
The increased number of police-issued summary offence tickets also caught Swanson’s eye since there were 2,145 tickets distributed in 2023 versus 1,360 the year before, an increase of 57.7 per cent.
“It’s good, but it is a big jump in one year,” she chuckled.
The police service issued more tickets because there were more officers assigned to traffic enforcement, said Bourassa, who noted there were 64 members employed last year versus 52 a few years ago.
Furthermore, while officers issued over 2,000 tickets, there was likely an “even larger jump” in the number of contacts with motorists, he added. The overall goal is education and safety, so tickets are a last resort.
The agency will have a better understanding of the number of contacts with motorists by December after the new computer-assisted dispatch (CAD) program is installed, since it will more accurately track the data, said Johns.
Bourassa indicated that the summary offence tickets category does not include infractions from the automated speed enforcement (ASE) camera locations. Those units produced more than 40,000 tickets last year because of lead-footed drivers speeding on Highway 1 or through a school zone.
“We are also in the process of getting the equipment in place to work with the city on doing some covert traffic flow and speed analysis in other locations where we get a lot of complaints,” he continued.
City hall could approach the province about installing more cameras — SGI handles the technology — if other locations require ASE, Bourassa added. Meanwhile, the good news is that while there are more speeders on Highway 1, there have been no serious collisions or deaths since the province installed the cameras.
The highway camera was temporarily broken in 2023, so there could have been more speeders than the numbers show, said Commissioner Clive Tolley. He thought it would be beneficial to see ticket comparisons between the ASE cameras and police enforcement.
The next police board meeting is Thursday, Feb. 15, at 9 a.m.
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