Reading Moose Jaw’s crime severity index (CSI) data for 2022 is giving police Chief Rick Bourassa déjà vu since the numbers are practically the same as in 2018.
Five years ago, the municipality’s overall CSI rating was 121, the same as last year’s. Furthermore, the violent CSI rating in 2018 was 101, while last year it was 102. Also, the non-violent CSI rating five years ago was 121, while last year, it was 130.
The index refers to a measure of police-reported crime that reflects the seriousness — violent or non-violent — of individual offences, tracks changes in crime severity, and gives a weighted rating to each incident.
Meanwhile, the Statistics Canada report shows Moose Jaw’s overall CSI rating last year decreased by 3.66 percentage points compared to 2021; the violent CSI rating increased by 15.41 percentage points versus two years ago; and the non-violent CSI rating decreased by 8.42 percentage points compared to 2021.
“It’s always good to see those sorts of decreases, but I always caution we need to be very careful because these are snapshots in time … . So, we tend to look at the long-term,” said Bourassa.
Tracking data
The Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) has tracked the municipality’s CSI rating for years, and last year, Moose Jaw sat between Saskatoon (126) and Regina (111), which is consistent with past years, he continued.
Furthermore, the five-year CSI trend line has changed over time. In 2018 the rating was 121, while in 2019 it was 110, was 104 in 2020, was 126 in 2021, and was 121 last year.
“We knew that as the restrictions of the pandemic hit (in 2020), we (would see) a reduction in some offences. And then, as things opened up again, we came back to where we tend to sit,” Bourassa said. “So we’re basically on par with 2018 … it’s not a straight line, it’s a fluctuating curve.”
Lack of civility
The violent CSI rating is the number the police chief closely monitors since it relates to residents’ safety. He pointed out that Moose Jaw’s rating was 102, which planted it between Regina (125) and Estevan (98) and was consistent with past years.
Specifically, the city’s rating in 2018 was 101, before it fell to 86 in 2019, 70 in 2020, and then rose to 88 in 2021 and 102 last year.
There is no clear answer about why the violent CSI number increased last year, although there has been a slow, steady increase in violence across Canada even before the pandemic, Bourassa said. He believes there is a lack of civility within society, leading to more people accepting violence as a legitimate way to solve disagreements.
While it’s not good that Moose Jaw has violent crime, it is positive that the community’s violent CSI rating is one of the lowest in Saskatchewan, he continued. However, there are flaws with the rating system since it only looks at the prevalence of crime but not at the reported situations.
Instead, Bourassa pointed to the weighted clearance rates rating, which measures the issues police clear or solve.
The data shows Moose Jaw’s overall CSI weighted clearance rate last year was 44, placing it second behind Estevan at 50. Meanwhile, the community’s violent CSI weighted clearance rate was 80, making it the top Saskatchewan municipality with the most violent incidents solved.
The general CSI data tells police what the issues are and where they need to deploy resources, while the weighted CSI data tells them how well they’re resolving situations, said Bourassa.
“So, these are very good numbers,” he stated.
Service calls
The chief then pointed to the MJPS’s data about calls for service, where officers responded to 19,143 calls last year, compared to 16,048 incidents two years ago and 15,642 in 2018. While CSI measures the type of crimes, the service calls measure everything to which the organization responds.
“So, very much of what we do is not related to responding to crime but relating to issues … (such as) people not getting along (or) disruption in the community,” said Bourassa.
Bourassa also presented data from the Saskatchewan Police Commission’s 2022-23 annual report, which showed that Moose Jaw’s police officer rate per 100,000 people is 190, putting it second-last in the province after Regina (197) and before Saskatoon (187).
While the agency’s police officer rate per population is low even with new members, its number is consistent with Regina’s and Saskatoon’s, said Bourassa.
Public presence
The MJPS has implemented “beats” or patrol areas for its members, who are out regularly on bicycles, motorcycles or foot in parks and public spaces ensuring residents feel more comfortable, he continued.
Besides a more visible presence, the extra cops have allowed the agency to increase its investigative capacity to pursue the issues affecting Moose Jaw and solve them, Bourassa remarked, pointing back to the CSI weighted clearance rate.
“You’ve seen some of the stories about the searches we’ve done and how our tactical (response) team has been involved because of the firearms,” he said. “And we’re going to continue to do more of that, which was our commitment to get at some of those serious incidents involving guns, gangs (and) drugs.”
Community safety
It’s difficult to say whether Moose Jaw is safe since “safety is a psychological issue” about how people feel, Bourassa said. However, the police service is working with the University of Regina to conduct another public survey this fall, and he will review people’s perceptions of safety.
“Most of the violence we encounter happens within a person’s social network (with family and friends). Very, very seldom is violence is something that happens among strangers … ,” he continued. “In most cases, people are very safe in our community. When we look at the numbers, the vast majority aren’t involved in being victimized (by) crime.
“But there are certainly people who are not safe in our community and that’s where we need to continue to work.”
Bourassa added that Moose Jaw is not unique in its issues since other Canadian municipalities grapple with the same problems, based on his conversations with other police chiefs.
