MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM — Police Chief Rick Bourassa understands that the community may be fearful when hearing about downtown assaults but pointed out most violent incidents occur between individuals who know each other.
Bourassa spoke about the incidents while discussing crime statistics during the Board of Police Commissioners’ Oct. 19 meeting. He noted that other jurisdictions are also seeing an increase in crimes against people, while there is no clear reason why.
From Jan. 1 to Sept. 31, the statistics show there were 417 total crimes against the person compared to 359 incidents during the same period last year. This represents an increase of 58 incidents — a jump of 16.2 per cent — year-over-year.
Year-to-date data for crimes against people for 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively, show:
- Homicide: 0 / 1 / 0
- Attempted murder: 4 / 1 / 2; a 300-per-cent increase year-over-year
- Assaults (sexual, common, with weapon/cause bodily harm, aggravated, against police): 296 / 253 / 235; a 17-per-cent increase year-over-year
- Robbery: 7 / 7 / 3
In particular, common assaults are up 18.4 per cent (180 incidents from 152), assaults with a weapon/cause bodily harm are up 35.7 per cent (57 from 42) and assaults on police are up 60 per cent (16 from 10).
Commissioner Doug Blanc expressed concern about the increased assaults with a weapon, attacks on police and attempted murders; he wished the latter was zero. He noted that he has been hearing people speak about this wherever he goes.
Bourassa agreed, saying police have seen an increase in not only the number of incidents but also their severity. Moreover, the agency also hears those comments and attempts to address them.
“(It’s) incredibly difficult to prevent these types of things. If we knew they were going to happen, we would prevent them,” he said.
Residents may believe there have been a bunch of random incidents occurring, but that is not true because most occur between individuals who know each other, Bourassa continued.
Specifically, . However, . That was “very rare, but troublesome.”
“We are at far greater risk from people in our social circle than we are from people we don’t know. And it’s not a comfortable thing to say … ,” Bourassa added. “I know it does cause fear in the community when they hear these numbers.”
There certainly appears to be a lack of civility and increased agitation and aggression among citizens to solve problems, said board chairwoman Mary Lee Booth.
Booth commended leadership for using taxpayers’ funds “in such a responsible way” during the last two years since it has hired more officers to patrol the community. Moreover, it has done well with limited resources.
“I just hope the Moose Jaw community appreciates that you can’t have a police officer on every corner,” she added. “If we want good service, we have to be prepared to pay for it.”
The agency has taken preventative steps by working with community groups that could be vulnerable, such as the Moose Jaw Multicultural Council, said Bourassa.
That’s important because new immigrants sometimes come from countries where they fear police and typically run away from them, he continued. That can prevent people from contacting police during difficult situations since they lack trust, which is why it’s important to build and maintain those relationships.
“We’re here to be everyone’s police,” Bourassa added.
Blanc wondered whether the relationship between new immigrants and police had improved. He pointed out that Donald’s Fine Foods was hiring international workers for its sow processing plant while 52 per cent of students at Saskatchewan Polytechnic are immigrants.
The police service had created relationships with immigrants, but the pandemic paused much of that work, said Bourassa. The agency has returned to interacting with people, but it’s not possible to determine whether there’s more trust among newcomers.
The next police board meeting is Thursday, Nov. 9.
